The Laser Lightning Rod project

Thomas Produit (1) , Pierre Walch (2) , Clemens Herkommer (3, 4) , Amirhossein Mostajabi (5) , Michel Moret (1) , Ugo Andral (1) , Antonio Sunjerga (5) , Mohammad Azadifar (6) , Yves-Bernard André (2) , Benoît Mahieu (2) , Walter Haas (7) , Bruno Esmiller (8) , Gilles Fournier (8) , Peter Krötz (3) , Thomas Metzger (3) , Knut Michel (3) , André Mysyrowicz (2, 9) , Marcos Rubinstein (6) , Farhad Rachidi (5) , Jérôme Kasparian (1, 10) , Jean-Pierre Wolf (1) , Aurélien Houard (2)

1 GAP - Group of Applied Physics [Geneva]
2 ILM - Interaction Laser-Matière
3 TRUMPF Scientific Lasers GmbH
4 Department of Physics,
5 EMC LAB - Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory
6 Institute of Information and Communication technologies
7 Swisscom Broadcast AG
8 ArianeGroup
9 André Mysyrowicz Consultants
10 ISE - Institute for Environmental Sciences [Geneva]

Lightning is highly destructive due to its high power density and unpredictable character. Directing lightning away would allow to protect sensitive sites from its direct and indirect impacts (electromagnetic perturbations). Up to now, lasers have been unable to guide lightning efficiently since they were not offering simultaneously terawatt peak powers and kHz repetition rates. In the framework of the Laser Lightning Rod project, we develop a laser system for lightning control, with J-range pulses of 1ps duration at 1kHz. The project aims at investigating its propagation in the multiple filamentation regime and its ability to control high-voltage discharges. In particular, a field campaign at the S ̈antis mountain will assess the laser ability to trigger upward lightning.

Keywords: Filamentation laser; Femtosecond lasers; Lightning protection; Nonlinear optics

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

Thomas Produit, Pierre Walch, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Michel Moret, et al.. The Laser Lightning Rod project. European Physical Journal: Applied Physics, 2021, 93 (1), pp.10504. ⟨10.1051/epjap/2020200243⟩. ⟨hal-03078714v2⟩