Study of Laser Triggered Lightning by Simulation

Simulation on Start-up of Discharges from Discontinuous Plasmas

Abstract

We have developed a simulation code on the discharges from discontinuous plasmas to study laser triggered lightning theoretically. And the simulations of the discharges with 2m gap from discontinuous plasmas, of which intervals are 5mm or 10mm, are performed. The model is based on plasma approximation. The effects of distortion of external electric field by tower and the progresses of the leader are included. The speed of the progresses of the leader obtained by simulations is about 3×10⁶m/s which agrees with experimental results.