Scientists have deflected lightning. How did it happen?

During their experiment conducted on top of Mount Säntis in Switzerland, scientists were able to change the direction of lightning using a high-powered laser. We explain how this was done.

As reported by the website ScienceAlert, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and EPFL in Switzerland, École Polytechnique in France, and the company TRUMPF, which deals with scientific lasers in Germany, have been working on using lasers for lightning protection.

Although the idea of a "laser lightning rod" is not new, since it dates back to the early 1970s, as Aurélien Houard, a scientist at the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée at the Swiss university EPFL and coordinator of the project, said, it has never been successfully tested in practice before.

The principle of operation is simple, as a sufficiently powerful laser heats the air, causing the release of electrons by molecules, which creates a channel of charged electrons attracting lightning following the path of least resistance between clouds and the ground. However, a very high laser frequency of 1 kHz (1000 pulses per second) is required.

So far, the theory has been verified in a laboratory, and a real-world experiment was supposed to bring the final verification. To this end, scientists transported a 3-tonne laser to the top of Säntis mountain in Switzerland, which is 8202 feet high, where there is a 1312-foot tall communication tower hit by lightning at least 100 times a year.

The laser was activated under favorable weather conditions, which ultimately resulted in the lightning following the beam for almost 197 feet. Of course, at least a decade will pass before the findings from the experiment are used commercially as a supplement for traditional lightning rods.

These will significantly simplify protection, because the lightning rods currently in use, invented by Benjamin Franklin, provide protection at a distance equal to their height. For example, in the case of a 32.8 feet high lightning rod, the area protected extends up to 32.8 feet away.