luring lightning with laser, need help

I need to lure lighting with a laser. MY lightning rod isn't as reliable. SO, I've been reading about lasers and ended up here. I hear that a laser shot up into a thunderstorm creates ionized path to my lightning rod.

Anyone know anything about this? Can I do it with a simple laser? We get a lot of lightning strikes here and our equipment tower has taken a beating from several strikes.

No, you can't do it with a simple laser. Is it a hoax? No. Is it feasable for you? No. For the cost of the equipment to do what you're asking, you'd be better off buying yourself a few new houses.

To actually ionize the air you'd need a seriously powerful laser, more powerful than we have here.

I'd suggest doing some google searching and seeing how these things work I think I remember reading about this in New Scientist.

You'd be better off firing a model rocket in the air with a coil of fine wire attached to it. I saw that on television, so if you kill yourself doing it, not my fault

I will seriously take that in consideration apex. Are you guys for sure that a regular laser can't help dictate a lighting strike? (just a little) and by the laser have a lightning rod?

If i loaded a pole top with enough copper. Would that reassure me of a lightning strike? Or does the amount of copper even matter?

You know its weird this subject came up. The other night we had one hell of a lightning storm. The bolts were so close I heard snaps instead of big booms. I could have sworn that where I was pointing the laser (RPL-225)was where a bolt would form. It kind of freaked me out and I got inside. Could have just been a natural coincidence.

templedog said:

I will seriously take that in consideration apex.  Are you guys for sure that a regular laser can't help dictate a lighting strike? (just a little)  and by the laser have a lightning rod?

If i loaded a pole top with enough copper. Would that reassure me of a lightning strike? Or does the amount of copper even matter?

Click to expand...

Yes, a regular laser will have no effect - its an all or nothing situation. You need enough power and good enough properties to ionize the air. Just like getting a tesla coil or tube light going, you need to hit a certain voltage to get electricity flowing through the air. Once you get that, extra power doesn't matter. If you can't hit that breakdown point though, you're not getting anything out of it at all.

In theory copper could help reduce the resistance to arcing to that rod, but I doubt it'll have a very significant effect. Sorry. Perhaps make sure your rod is grounded properly. Make it taller? Dunno too much about lightning rods to be honest so I'm just talking out of my ass here anyway...

I know this is a laser forum and I might be getting a little off topic, but.. If I put a copper lighting rod at the top of a tree, and attach it to a copper wire that spirals down the tree and don't ground it to the ground....When the lighting hits it, will it blow the tree to smithereens? As in, max damage and destruction?

Actually all you have to do is get a place on top of a hill - I have actually SEEN lighting hit a tree less than 200 feet from my door - twice! Since I've lived here lightning has hit at least 4 trees within a 500 feet radius of my house.

But I wouldn't say the trees were "blown to bits"....basically the electric surge will boil the sap in the tree and will blow off bark in places, usually along the path the bolt takes. It won't really blow the tree open, though. Years ago, my neighbor's huge old white oak tree was struck, and a couple hours later smoke and steam was still pouring out of the knot hole!

But if you do intend to draw (or attempt to do so - all you would need is something very tall on your property - and being on an elevation helps) a lightning strike, you will want to either shut down the main power panel in your house or install surge protector at the power panel. I can't tell you how many tv's, microwave ovens, lamps, etc, computer modems (back when I had dial-up) have been fried when lightning has hit this hill top. A strike close by will wreak havoc on unprotected electronics. Last time lighting hit here at least 5 lightbulbs blew out due to the surge....I'm looking into a whole-house surge suppressor.

You need to learn a bit more about how lightning works. Metal does not necessarily influence or attract a lightning strike. Step leaders are generated below an ionized area. The step leaders rise from the ground off all kinds of objects including non metal objects. At the same time a stream is descending to the ground. When the step leader comes into contact with the descending bolt a connection is made and the full charges passes along the connection resulting in a bright flash of instantly ionized air. Which step leader makes the connection is a random process.

The rocket experiments conducted in Florida insure that their wire filament makes the connection before any other step leaders by carrying a long wire high above the ground allowing ions to flow in the wire close to the discharging cloud. This provides a high probability of a lightning strike down the wire which, of course, is instantly vaporized. Although it improves the probability of a strike in a defined area there is no guarantee any given launch will result in a discharge. Woot, probability strikes again.

A lightning rod is not designed to attract lightning. It is designed to provide an alternate path to ground minimizing damage to structures and equipment should a strike occur.

So, I need to buy a few high powered rockets, and some light copper wire that leads down to the tree? or will the wire be fryed be4 it even gets to the tree?

I think you can use a laser with a certain wavelenght that is absorbed by O2 or N2, ionizing then air.

Remember to use a grounded prism to shine the beam to the sky,if not, say goodbye to the laser.

I wouldn't mind buying a laser for a high price if I knew I could get lightning to strike there just one time. I emailed a few laser manufacturers and they haven't gotten back to me yet. Just to get the right rig, where all I have to do is install it and not adjust much is pretty hard. I don't really want to research this to long...

I am wondering if a copper tube, would work just as good as a solid rod?

Yea laser manufacturers probably didn't respond cause this thing isn't practical yet, it's just research.

Maby If I had a 1 megawatt blu-ray I could cause the electricity in the air to jump the gap. [smiley=lolk.gif]