Laser could trigger rain and lightning UCF College of Optics & Photonics

[derwoodii]

[...]
Researchers at the University of Central Florida’s College of Optics & Photonics and the University of Arizona have further developed a new technique to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning.

http://today.ucf.edu/dressed-laser-aimed-clouds-may-key-inducing-rain-lightning/

[...]

http://rt.com/news/dressed-lasers-weather-rain-548/

 

[M Bornong]

That they have been working on this has already made the mainstream news several months ago, http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/controlling-the-weather-is-it-possible/ There are already a number of examples of how this is being misinterpreted, one example here, It doesn't seem to me that this is anywhere beyond a lab experiment and is nowhere close to being put to practical use, as stated in this video. What seems to happen is the misrepresentation of what could happen and what is happening that feeds the conspiracy theory.

So far, Mills and fellow graduate student Ali Miri have been able to extend the pulse from 10 inches to about 7 feet. And they’re working to extend the filament even farther.

Content from External Source

http://today.ucf.edu/dressed-laser-aimed-clouds-may-key-inducing-rain-lightning/

 

[Mick West]

Please keep the discussion polite. The facts go across better when people do not feel mocked.

 

[Alhazred The Sane]

Hmm. I would have thought that in an environment with a lot of positively charged ions the potential for rain was pretty much a given. I'm struggling to recall any lightning storm where massive rain wasn't already happening. So, considering they need that positively charged atmosphere to begin with, where's the benefit? Aiming twin beams of lasers at nothing, or even at clouds that aren't about to release their moisture ... maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick, but I can't see how their hypothesis stands up.

 

[SR1419]

I'm struggling to recall any lightning storm where massive rain wasn't already happening.

There is the phenomenon of "dry lightening" - I have seen many storms in the western US that lit the skies with tremendous lightening displays with nary a drop of rain. They are a significant source of forest and grassland fires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_lightning

 

[WeedWhacker]

There is the phenomenon of "dry lightening" - I have seen many storms in the western US that lit the skies with tremendous lightening displays with nary a drop of rain. They are a significant source of forest and grassland fires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_lightning

There are, indeed, some incredible examples of how "Mother Nature" (aka, science) can work.

If there were only some way to explain this science to those who are woefully uninformed? Unfortunately, sometimes, superstition and Urban Myths take hold instead.