Lasers as lightning rods just became a reality thanks to a new study

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Lasers as lightning rods just became a reality thanks to a new study
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The study has shown that the use of intense lasers can be used to divert lightning, much like conventional 'Franklin rods.'

as lightning rods is a theoretical concept that is still being researched. The idea is that a high-powered laser beam could be directed into the atmosphere in order to ionize a path for lightning to follow, in effect "guiding" the lightning strike to a specific location where it can be safely grounded.

Intense laser pulses have been used to guide lightning strikes in laboratory settings before; however, there has never been a field finding that experimentally shows lightning guidance by lasers.On the Säntis Mountain in northeastern Switzerland, Aurélien Houard and associates conducted experiments in the summer of 2021 to determine whether a laser might direct a lightning strike.

Greater X-ray burst detection during the time of the impacts also confirmed successful lightning directing. High-speed cameras directly captured one of the strikes, which was later proved to have followed the laser path for more than 164 feet .

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