Laser beam guides lightning bolts to a ground target
June 28, 2012
A guided lightning bolt travels horizontally, then hits a car when it finds the lower resistance path to ground. The lightning is guided in a laser-induced plasma channel, then it deviates from the channel when it gets close to the target and has a lower-resistance path to ground. (Credit: U.S. Army)
Scientists and engineers at the U.S Army’s Picatinny Arsenal are developing a device that can shoot lightning bolts down laser beams to destroy its target.
The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) is designed to take out targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them.
“Light travels more slowly in gases and solids than it does in a vacuum,” explained George Fischer, lead scientist on the project.
“If a laser puts out a pulse with modest energy, but the time is incredibly tiny, the power can be huge,” he said. “During the duration of the laser pulse, it can be putting out 50 billion watts, more power than a large city needs, but the pulse only lasts for two-trillionths of a second.
“For very powerful and high intensity laser pulses, the air can act like a lens, keeping the light in a small-diameter filament,” said Fischer. “We use an ultra-short-pulse laser of modest energy to make a laser beam so intense that it focuses on itself in air and stays focused in a filament. The plasma channel conducts electricity way better than un-ionized air, so if we set up the laser so that the filament comes near a high voltage source, the electrical energy will travel down the filament.”
A target, an enemy vehicle or even some types of unexploded ordnance, would be a better conductor than the ground it sits on. Since the voltage drop across the target would be the same as the voltage drop across the same distance of ground, current flows through the target. In the case of unexploded ordnance, it would detonate, explained Fischer.
Comments (10)
by egore
Defense Dept usually will not talk about anything that can be used as a weapon .
by Marcos Marin
so command&conquer wasn’t so far off after all =)
by GatorALLin
Yeah….weapons will always help pay for some of this cool technology…that is where so much of our tax dollars go… I agree that we should come up with some other useful ideas to this cool science trick… So, can we setup the power stations to receive lightning bolts from the sky…. shooting lasers to the storm clouds to direct lightning to a storage center (Orlando Florida is the lightning capital of the world….lets start here!). Maybe this is the windfarm of lightning… just need to direct the bolts and be able to store that big of a jolt… Maybe with the size of the laser beam you can control the lightning size, to reduce the jolts..? cloud drainers… cool. So if this pulls energy from a storm could this reduce the negative affects of a hurricane or tropical storm any? If so that would kill 2 birds with 1 stone… after all this rain this week, us in FL could use some good news of storing lightning in a bottle.
by Chrispium
@Dan Robinson
Natural lightning is quite a poor energy source. Very spiky yield that would require expensively rugged equipment. Just not profitable at all.
In regards to stopping fires:
1. Lightning strikes in residences can be stopped effectively with lightning rods, grounding the bolt.
2. In nature fires actually helps habitats to renew and replenish, so even though a patch of land can look devastated it’s just a new opportunity for nature. Without periodic fires to clear land the strongest plants (trees) would win out and the landscape would loose diversity.
by Gorden Russell
Of course weapons take priority, Dan. There are people in Wazirastan and Yemen who want to kill us. Our military people are getting blown up by IEDs every day. If you can put a high voltage source in a drone, you’ll be king of the road.
by Bri
Easy to make a IED lightning bolt killer. A remote rover with a bottle rocket and a spool of conducting wire and your done. They’ been triggering lighting for years. A lot cheaper and it doesn’t use enough energy to power a city. Just cool science. If it’s line of sight ease of aiming, then it should range find, and up link to a tiny flying drone, With a bottle rocket, A spool of conducting wire. Cheap, disposable , would save lives.
by Bri
Honestly, the issue with land mines or IED, home made land mines(improvised explosive device) is detection. Once you know it’s there, you blow it up. To cross a tank through a land mine field, you set of the mines with concussive charges. We did that in deseart storm. A Tera hertz detector, remotely deployed could find them. Better yet is the smart dust. It could see the mine being planted and not give up it’s information or location without being ping’d with the proper access code. If dropped on a battlefield after the fact, they still could be designed to sample for explosive material. Totally invisible to the naked eye, smart dust is being produced in a plant in upstate NY. It’s run by DARPA and AMD. I wouldn’t worry about Yemin or even Russia, our hypervelocity first strike program would rule the skies. A nuke in your face in a couple of hours is very lethal. All doctrines of limited nuclear fight stress overwhelming dominance. You see them play out on the screen in War games. The big key to winning a battle isn’t the size or strenghth of the force. It’s the precise application of force against the advasaries weak points. Look at Hanable, look at Thermopoly, look at Alexander. Stormin Norman did a text book play of modern military doctrine. Saddam thought he was safe behind his Great wall of China style defense. He smashed holes in the walls, rushed in and remembered comand structure. Cut of the head. We will use this in any conflict. We already have overwhelming superiority in fire power. Russias and chinas military advancements are minuscule in comparison to ours. They still want to fight. You are making it inevitable. If Skynet does become a learning AI, whose to say it won’t find us tiresome for not learning. “Strange game, the only way to win is not to play”
by Dan Robinson
Too bad they only think of it as a weapon. How about as an energy source from storms, probably charging capacitors, and to reduce lightning caused fires? I guess weapons always have to take priority.
by Chrispium
Oldtimes Tomas A. Swift electric rifle coming to life! What a science fiction age we live in.
by Bri
The kit comes fully loaded. Everything you need to act like Zues!(cloud not included,see instruction for further limitation., manufacturer not responsible for collateral damage, may not be legal in all areas, if you experience dellutions of grander, or feelings of immortality, seek medical attention immediately!).