It is highly important to clarify the basic characteristics of plasmas produced by laser focusing for investigating the possibility of laser-induced lightning. This paper reports the electron density, electron temperature and neutral particle density in laserinduced plasmas measured by Thomson and Rayleigh scattering techniques. The electron temperature increases to 2.5eV in maximum in 3 to 3.5μs after firing the laser, and then gradually decreases in several tens of microseconds. The Rayleigh scattering measurement has shown that the rarefied air region of lower neutral particle density takes a spherical shell profile in later stages after the laser firing. This has been also confirmed by the induced discharge paths through the circumference of a plasma after 500μs.
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