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How to get gigantic currents from lighning

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LAN_403

Microwatt

Tue Jul 31 2012, 09:05PM

Registered Member #3282 Joined: Wed Oct 06 2010, 05:01PM
Location:
Posts: 224

howabout a TEA laser. you see those big tubes in my first post. fill it up with laser gas mix. a megajoule pulse easily

cbfull

Wed Aug 01 2012, 04:43PM

Registered Member #187 Joined: Thu Feb 16 2006, 02:54PM
Location: Central Ohio
Posts: 140

There's another factor to consider. Once the air ionizes and the channel conducts, the charge actually sloshes back and forth throwing out huge amounts of radio-frequency noise. That's why it's so easy to pick up lightning discharges on any AM radio frequency.

For this to work you would need the charge to travel in one direction only.

Antonio

Wed Aug 01 2012, 04:59PM

Registered Member #834 Joined: Tue Jun 12 2007, 10:57PM
Location: Brazil
Posts: 644

cbfull wrote ...

There's another factor to consider. Once the air ionizes and the channel conducts, the charge actually sloshes back and forth throwing out huge amounts of radio-frequency noise. That's why it's so easy to pick up lightning discharges on any AM radio frequency.
For this to work you would need the charge to travel in one direction only.

Even with some oscillations (small, because the quality factor of the system comprising the capacitance between the earth and the cloud, and the inductance of the spark channel, is too low), there is always a net transfer of charge. An AM radio would pick the signal even if it were a single pulse, because its antenna and front-end filter would be excited to oscillate at their natural frequencies by the pulse.

Dri0m

Wed Aug 01 2012, 06:02PM

Registered Member #4497 Joined: Thu Apr 19 2012, 12:53PM
Location: Behind you
Posts: 62

i think that safer and cheaper way is weather baloon with pice of wire connected into capacitor, if baloon is kilometer above groung, then you can store 100kV of static electricity into your cap

Microwatt

Wed Aug 01 2012, 06:24PM

Registered Member #3282 Joined: Wed Oct 06 2010, 05:01PM
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Posts: 224

how much current are you talking about from the atmosphere uA?

teravolt

Thu Aug 02 2012, 01:50AM

Registered Member #195 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 08:27PM
Location: Berkeley, ca.
Posts: 1111

if I were you I would just make a rocket with a coil of wire and just make a controled strike. it would be safer and less work. you could even set up some sensors to mesure current and duration

Sulaiman

Thu Aug 02 2012, 01:56AM

Registered Member #162 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3141

based on my feeble knowledge of lightning;

if you put inductance in it's path it will just go around it.

the rocket/wire system I have seen videos of
.... not sure your neighbors would be pleased though !

Killa-X

Thu Aug 02 2012, 02:26AM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

cbfull wrote ...

There's another factor to consider. Once the air ionizes and the channel conducts, the charge actually sloshes back and forth throwing out huge amounts of radio-frequency noise. That's why it's so easy to pick up lightning discharges on any AM radio frequency.

For this to work you would need the charge to travel in one direction only.

When we have strikes that are either very powerful or close, our touch sensitive lamp will go on and off. The only thing that can do that, besides a capacitive object (such as your hand) is when I run my tesla coils at high power...so that shows that yes, there's a lot of noise...

Microwatt

Thu Aug 02 2012, 09:19AM

Registered Member #3282 Joined: Wed Oct 06 2010, 05:01PM
Location:
Posts: 224

no reason why we cannot have a big giant co2 laser? get those green tubes above fill with co2 laser gas from the manufacturers of the tubes. make a big gold mirror, and melt a 2 foot diameter salt cake for your OC put in electrodes get a rocket magnet wire and wait for thunder.
Just imagine a 5 megajoule laser for less than 5000 dollars

cbfull

Thu Aug 02 2012, 09:18PM

Registered Member #187 Joined: Thu Feb 16 2006, 02:54PM
Location: Central Ohio
Posts: 140

Antonio wrote ...

Even with some oscillations (small, because the quality factor of the system comprising the capacitance between the earth and the cloud, and the inductance of the spark channel, is too low), there is always a net transfer of charge. An AM radio would pick the signal even if it were a single pulse, because its antenna and front-end filter would be excited to oscillate at their natural frequencies by the pulse.

The oscillations are in no way small. They are large enough to momentarily disrupt the image processor on a videocamera that is not grounded. You can see this happening in the youtube vid below. (FYI this is my favorite thunderstorm vid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WgHTXMswG0

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