Direct observation of laser guided corona discharges.

Tie-Jun Wang,Cheng Wang,Jingjing Ju,Haihe Lu,Yonghong Liu,See Leang Chin,Jiansheng Liu,Ruxin Li,Yaoxiang Liu,Haiyi Sun,Na Chen,Zhizhan Xu,Yingxia Wei

doi:10.1038/srep18681

Abstract

Laser based lightning control holds a promising way to solve the problem of the long standing disaster of lightning strikes. But it is a challenging project due to insufficient understanding of the interaction between laser plasma channel and high voltage electric filed. In this work, a direct observation of laser guided corona discharge is reported. Laser filament guided streamer and leader types of corona discharges were observed. An enhanced ionization took place in the leader (filament) through the interaction with the high voltage discharging field. The fluorescence lifetime of laser filament guided corona discharge was measured to be several microseconds, which is 3 orders of magnitude longer than the fluorescence lifetime of laser filaments. This work could be advantageous towards a better understanding of laser assisted leader development in the atmosphere.

Highlights

In the atmosphere by laser filament has been demonstrated there was no direct observation of laser guided lightning strikes[31]
We report on a high contrast, direct observation of laser filament guided corona discharges (FGCD)
Real-color image of typical filament guided corona discharge is shown in Fig. 2(a), which was taken by the digital camera

Summary

Introduction

In the atmosphere by laser filament has been demonstrated there was no direct observation of laser guided lightning strikes[31]. The observations[31,34] suggested that corona discharges are important and may have been triggered during the interaction between laser filaments and high voltage electric field. Lightning electric field could be either guided to the earth[29] or neutralized in the intra/extra thunder cloud[31] by laser filaments as proposed. The success of both cases would strongly rely upon the propagation of corona along the plasma filament. We report on a high contrast, direct observation of laser filament guided corona discharges (FGCD). The results would benefit the understanding of the interaction between plasma filaments and corona discharges, and stick out as the first step towards laser assisted leader development in the atmosphere

Methods

Results

Conclusion