Lasers could someday prevent lightning strikes at airports, stadiums

ATLANTA — Lightning poses a risk to our lives and our homes, especially here in Georgia. But lasers could someday help protect us.

Georgia is one of the states with the most lightning-related deaths. There have been 16 between 2006 and 2021, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the first time, researchers have successfully used a laser to guide lightning at a telecommunications tower. They hope someday they can use lasers to save lives.

“All of a sudden I smelled something, the smell of electrical wire burning,” homeowner Julie Baruchman said.

She told Channel 2 Action News that she did not realize her Woodstock home was on fire until a neighbor warned her.

“Banged on the door and yelled ‘Your house is on fire,’” Baruchman said.

A lightning strike sparked the flames and smoke that gutted her house on the Fourth of July in 2022.

“This is where the lightning first struck?” Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz asked Baruchman as she showed him her house.

“That’s exactly right. It struck about that corner right there,” Baruchman pointed out. “All the insulation came down. Everything in this room was pretty much destroyed.”

The damage was so severe, it forced her and her husband to spend months in an apartment while crews made repairs.

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“Between the smoke and some of the fire and the water, it just spread throughout the rest of the top floor,” Baruchman said.

Lightning occurs when electrical charges separate. A weak spot electrically is created naturally in the atmosphere, then lightning can strike a target like a stadium.

Researchers successfully used a high-powered laser to artificially create a weak spot in the atmosphere.

They directed the lightning toward a preferred target -- a lightning rod.

“My reaction was like, wow!” said Jean-Pierre Wolf, a professor at the University of Geneva and a part of the research team that guided lightning with a laser at a telecommunications tower on top of a Swiss mountain.

“I could really see the lightning, really following the laser beam,” Wolf said.

Morris Cohen, Ph.D. is an associate professor at Georgia Tech. He said the laser heats up the air, creating a little tunnel for lightning.

“What the laser can do is it can create a slight weak spot. And as the natural lightning is coming through, it’s going to prefer to go through that weak spot,” Cohen said.

Researchers believe lasers could someday be used to protect launch pads, nuclear power plants, stadiums, and airports.

“Lightning striking near an airport is one of the big reasons why aviation is shut down in the context of thunderstorms. And so, if we could protect airports, we’d save a lot of wasted time and money and fuel,” Cohen said.

But there is much more work to be done before lasers can be used as lightning protection commercially.

“Until you make something compact, reliable, cost-effective, you probably require five years,” Wolf said.

After seeing firsthand how dangerous lightning can be, Baruchman thinks using lasers to guide lightning is a great idea.

“I think it would be a tremendous benefit. I mean, it could be a lifesaver,” Baruchman said.

Wolf said if they can bring down the cost, lasers could potentially also be used to help prevent forest fires sparked by lightning.

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