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.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

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History
Original Manuscript: March 5, 2008
Manuscript Accepted: March 18, 2008
Revised Manuscript: March 14, 2008
Published: April 10, 2008

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Author Affiliations

Philipp Rohwetter, Kamil Stelmaszczyk, Ludger Woeste

Free University Berlin

Roland Sauerbrey

FZ Dresden-Rossendorf

Yves-Bernard André, Grégoire Méchain, Bernard Prade, André Mysyrowicz

LOA-ENSTA-Ecole Polytechnique

Jean-Pierre Wolf

Université de Genève

Jerome Kasparian

Universite Lyon 1

Roland Ackermann, Guillaume Méjean, Estelle Salmon, Jin Yu

Université Lyon 1 ; CNRS

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