Electric events synchronized with laser filaments in thunderclouds

2008/04/10 by Jérôme Kasparian, Roland Ackermann, Yves-Bernard André +11 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Combustion and flame dynamics #Electric field #Lightning (connector) #Optics #Laser #Thunderstorm #Ionization #Atmosphere (unit) #Materials science #Physics #Meteorology #Ion

paper · doi:10.1364/oe.16.005757

openalex publication_date 2008/04/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We investigated the possibility to trigger real-scale lightning using ionized filaments generated by ultrashort laser pulses in the atmosphere. Under conditions of high electric field during two thunderstorms, we observed a statistically significant number of electric events synchronized with the laser pulses, at the location of the filaments. This observation suggests that corona discharges may have been triggered by filaments.

Citations

• Femtosecond filamentation in transparent media

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• Lightning [wikipedia]

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