And now we can bend lightning
Controlling weather with lasers is a thing of science fiction. Or it was?
Physicist Aurélien Houard and his team of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris in Palaiseau, tested their anti-lightning high powered laser atop the Säntis mountain in northeastern Switzerland. They succeeded in bending lightning and deflecting it away from a telecommunications tower towards ground-based metal rods.
They managed to capture images which showed lightning zigzagging down from the clouds and following the laser light for some 50 meters toward the tower’s lightning rod.
When this technology is ready to be used it can potentially protect infrastructure where lightning rods are impractical, like airports or wind farms. It may even be used as an energy source.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/laser-lightning-rod-electricity