THE STUDY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF LIGHTNING TRIGGERING BY MEANS OF A LASER

. To study the possibility of triggering techniques of lightning discharges with a laser plasma, several experiments were carried out with a C0 2 pulse laser and a switching voltage generator. The following results were obtained. Both long straight discharges and zigzag discharges were induced with a laser plasma channel and the strong guiding effect of the laser channel has been confirmed. Laboratory investigation of the necessary condition for initiating and guiding a streamer with a laser plasma channel reveals that, (1) the necessary electric field for initiating a streamer with a laser plasma depends closely on the absorbed energy used to produce laser plasma channels and the minimum electric field is about 200kV/m, and (2) the necessary electric field for guiding a streamer by a laser plasma is lower than that of initiating a streamer and the minimum electric field is about 170kV/m. The simple calculation of the electric field distribution at the top of a grounded tower shows that a laser plasma channel may trigger a lightning discharge from the top of the tower .