Laser-triggered lightning

Yoshinori Shimada; Shigeaki Uchida; Hirohiko Yasuda; Shinji Motokoshi; Chiyoe Yamanaka; Zen-ichiro Kawasaki; Tatsuhiko Yamanaka; Yuji Ishikubo; Mikio Adachi

doi:10.1117/12.316594

14 July 1998 Laser-triggered lightning

Yoshinori Shimada, Shigeaki Uchida, Hirohiko Yasuda, Shinji Motokoshi, Chiyoe Yamanaka, Zen-ichiro Kawasaki, Tatsuhiko Yamanaka, Yuji Ishikubo, Mikio Adachi

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3423, Second GR-I International Conference on New Laser Technologies and Applications; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.316594
Event: Second GR-I International Conference on New Laser Technologies and Applications, 1997, Olympia, Greece

Abstract

A series of field experiments for laser triggered lightning have been carried out targeting the winter thunderstorms in Fukui, Japan. A combination of a 2 kJ CO₂ laser system, a 600 J Nd-glass laser and a 4th harmonics 100 mJ YAG laser was used to produce a plasma channel which are effective to trigger and guide an electrical leader from the lightning tower. A new scheme of autotriggering laser system by preliminary breakdown (PB) has been developed. The PB triggering system demonstrated its capability of irradiating the laser at the right timing for triggering the leader. On February 11th 1997, in the field experiment, the electric leader was initiated by the laser plasma using the PB triggering system for the first time. A number of diagnostics including UHF interferometers, a tower current monitor, a capacitive antennas verified the initiation of leader triggered by the laser plasma both in time and space.

Citation Download Citation

Yoshinori Shimada, Shigeaki Uchida, Hirohiko Yasuda, Shinji Motokoshi, Chiyoe Yamanaka, Zen-ichiro Kawasaki, Tatsuhiko Yamanaka, Yuji Ishikubo, and Mikio Adachi "Laser-triggered lightning", Proc. SPIE 3423, Second GR-I International Conference on New Laser Technologies and Applications, (14 July 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.316594

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