Teramobile Laser and Lightning

Abstract

An ultrashort, terawatt laser was used to trigger lightning by creating ionized path in atmosphere. Joint French-German Teramobile was brought to the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research for the experiment. Arrays of instruments were used to assess lightning initiation, or ionized path to perturb the local electric field. No lightning discharges were observed triggered by the laser, but good understanding of physics and future laser needs were determined.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA432059

Entities

People

  • W. P. Winn

Organizations

  • New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Altitude
  • Atmospheric Electricity
  • Cameras
  • Electric Fields
  • Electricity
  • Laser Beams
  • Lightning
  • New Mexico
  • Photographs
  • Radio Frequency
  • Radio Frequency Pulses
  • Sea Level
  • Television Cameras
  • Three Dimensional
  • Time Intervals

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics.
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy