Fire safety

 

Laser-Guided Lightning May Help Prevent Wildfires

Small, portable laser pointers could be used to guide lightning strikes, with a study suggesting the technology may prevent bolts from sparking wildfires, a researcher told AFP Thursday.

A team of international scientists have shown storm clouds could be “short-circuited” by using a hollow laser — like a pipe of light — to deliver particles into the clouds and draw lightning strikes, research co-author Professor Andrey Miroshnichenko from the University of New South Wales in Canberra told AFP.

In lab tests, the team — which also included scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) — successfully used a laser tractor beam to direct the path of an electrical discharge to specific targets, Miroshnichenko said.

In the past, high-powered lasers were needed to achieve similar results, making the technique dangerous, costly and inaccurate.

But the new research suggested that small, hand-held lasers could be used in the field within the next decade, he said.

“It turns out that to deliver particles, you do not need high-intensity lasers, even low intensity like your laser pointer will be already enough,” Miroshnichenko said.

Using a tractor beam with a hollow center, micro-particles in the air could be heated up and delivered to a specific point and trigger an electrical discharge.