Researchers sponsored by the Pentagon are developing a high-energy laser that they say can create rain and trigger lightning.
The short intensive laser creates plasma that can interact with charged particles in a storm cloud and change weather, according to RT. The plasma battles the surrounding air for control in a process called filamentation, which leads to the creation of "excited electrons" that are the building blocks of lighting can be used to create and control lighting.
Scientists at the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona have found a solution to an issue concerning beams that are strong enough to control weather scattering quickly. A second low-intensity beam was used to "dress" the primary beam and act as its power source. As a result, the range of the high-intensity beam expanded from mere centimeters to several meters in lab conditions.
"Since we have control over the length of a filament with our method, one could seed the conditions needed for a rainstorm from afar," said Matthew Mills, a graduate student at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida. "Ultimately, you could artificially control the rain and lightning over a large expanse with such areas."
The team's report was published in the journal Nature Photonics, Yahoo! News reported.
Analysts said the ability to control weather comes from creating the right laser for the job.
"When a laser beam becomes intense enough, it behaves differently than usual - it collapses inward on itself," Mills said. "The collapse becomes so intense that electrons in the air's oxygen and nitrogen are ripped off creating plasma - basically a soup of electrons."
The cloud-laser technology has received a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to fund development, Yahoo! News reported.
The technology has potential to be used for other purposes, such as studying chemical compounds from long distances, remote sensing for spectroscopy and channeling of microwaves, RT reported.
The researchers said that in order to have the ability to control the weather, they need to be able to send a laser beam hundreds of meters into the sky and support its energy.
