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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: The laser that can make it rain: Researchers unveil radical system to start storms and create lightning on command Researchers have developed a new technique to cause rain and lighting by firing a laser at clouds. The technique uses a 'double laser' to stimulate particles within a cloud. The technique could one day be used to create rainstorms and even lighting on command, the researchers hope. Lightning storms over Africa: The new technique would allow researchers to trigger rain and lightning storms on command by firing lasers into clouds +2 Lightning storms over Africa: The new technique would allow researchers to trigger rain and lightning storms on command by firing lasers into clouds HOW TO MAKE IT RAIN Water condensation and lightning activity in clouds are linked to large amounts of static charged particles. Stimulating those particles with the right kind of laser holds the key to possibly one day summoning a shower when and where it is needed. Researchers say the key was to surround the beam with a second beam to act as an energy reservoir, sustaining the central beam to greater distances than previously possible. The researchers at the University of Central Florida’s College of Optics & Photonics and the University of Arizona developed a new technique to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning. They found the key was to surround the beam with a second beam to act as an energy reservoir, sustaining the central beam to greater distances than previously possible. The secondary 'dress' beam refuels and helps prevent the dissipation of the high-intensity primary beam, which on its own would break down quickly. A report on the project, 'Externally refueled optical filaments,' was recently published in Nature Photonics. Water condensation and lightning activity in clouds are linked to large amounts of static charged particles. Stimulating those particles with the right kind of laser holds the key to possibly one day summoning a shower when and where it is needed. Lasers can already travel great distances but “when a laser beam becomes intense enough, it behaves differently than usual – it collapses inward on itself,' said Matthew Mills, a graduate student in the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL). More... Where the chilli was born: Researchers find Mexico is home for the fiery crop The stealth electric motorcycle that can silently transport soldiers into battle 'The collapse becomes so intense that electrons in the air’s oxygen and nitrogen are ripped off creating plasma – basically a soup of electrons.' At that point, the plasma immediately tries to spread the beam back out, causing a struggle between the spreading and collapsing of an ultra-short laser pulse. This struggle is called filamentation, and creates a filament or 'light string' that only propagates for a while until the properties of air make the beam disperse. 'Because a filament creates excited electrons in its wake as it moves, it artificially seeds the conditions necessary for rain and lightning to occur,' Mills said. Other researchers have caused 'electrical events' in clouds, but not lightning strikes. The team is now developing a way to get close enough to direct the beam into the cloud without being blasted to smithereens by lightning. 'What would be nice is to have a sneaky way which allows us to produce an arbitrary long ‘filament extension cable,' the researchers say. The technique could one day be used to create rainstorms and even lighting on command, the researchers hope. The technique uses a 'double laser' to stimulate particles within a cloud. +2 The technique could one day be used to create rainstorms and even lighting on command, the researchers hope. The technique uses a 'double laser' to stimulate particles within a cloud. 'It turns out that if you wrap a large, low intensity, doughnut-like ‘dress’ beam around the filament and slowly move it inward, you can provide this arbitrary extension,' Mills said. 'Since we have control over the length of a filament with our method, one could seed the conditions needed for a rainstorm from afar. 'Ultimately, you could artificially control the rain and lightning over a large expanse with such ideas.' So far, Mills and fellow graduate student Ali Miri have been able to extend the pulse from 10 inches to about 7 feet. And they’re working to extend the filament even farther. 'This work could ultimately lead to ultra-long optically induced filaments or plasma channels that are otherwise impossible to establish under normal conditions,' said professor Demetrios Christodoulides, who is working with the graduate students on the project. 'In principle such dressed filaments could propagate for more than 50 meters or so, thus enabling a number of applications. 'This family of optical filaments may one day be used to selectively guide microwave signals along very long plasma channels, perhaps for hundreds of meters.' Other possible uses of this technique could be used in long-distance sensors and spectrometers to identify chemical makeup. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
If practical, I'm not certain that wouldn't be robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you cause the clouds to rain in one location, it seems to me the clouds would no longer moved to the location that would otherwise get rain.
Some mosture in rained area would evaporate and "replenish" clouds. No guarantee that downstream would get rain without lazering.
Rain is the reason we have streams and rivers that flow back into the oceans. Rain would not fall on an area, if the clouds that caused the rain long longer existed.
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