By: Justin Hall
Scientists in Switzerland have been creating lasers to harness lightning in order to protect people from lightning strikes. Traditionally, lightning rods have been the safest technique to channel the lightning straight back into the ground. This new laser was tested on the top of the Santis mountains right at a telecommunications tower. They also attached a lightning rod that gets struck at least 100 times a year. The laser was transmitted at the sky between July and September2021.
Physicist Aurelien Houard of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris in Palaiseau, France believes that in order for a framework or configuration to be protected from a severe lightning strike, a rod would need to be hundreds of meters.
WSAV meteorologist Kris Allred believes that updated technology is necessary in order to track lightning strikes especially in the Savannah area.
“Our WSAV building on Victory Drive gets struck by lightning sometimes several times a year,” said Allred.
While Houard believes that the laser needs to be hundreds of meters, Allred contemplates the size in order to track the lightning.
“My question is if they’re able to make it smaller and
more practical,” said Allred.
WTOC meteorologist Andrew Gorton is very much intrigued by the prospects of a new laser that is able to detect lightning strikes and their technology to avert enormous crises from happening.
"I think the possibility of using lasers and other technology to protect structures is interesting and innovative," said Gorton.
The results showed that quick, fierce blasts of infrared light at the sky for about 1000 times persecond. The results also demonstrated that this was the equivalent of eliminating trees in the woods in order to make room for buildings. Houard and his team designed the laser this way tostop a bolt before it reached the equipment.
The skies themselves varied at different points during the testing. One sky was transparent which allowed cameras to film the event. The other skies were not so clear to capture. In place of them, the scientists looked at broadcasting frequencies peeled by the strikes. The results showed that followed the path of the laser a lot closer than other strikes. The main difference was that the laser was on instead of off.
The purpose of a lightning rod is to protect a home or other buildings from a strike. Systems such as a lightning rod can't prevent the structure, but it can and will provide interception to follow an electrical discharge and place the energy from the lightning safely into the ground. A complete lightning system is required in order to ensure that dangerous electrical floods and possible fires caused by lightning entering a home or building through wires or pipes. This would also include protection for power, data and communication lines. However surge protection devices are at-risk devices. Lightning protection would also be needed to petrol conduits.