| Abstract: | The possibility of laser-induced lightning has been investigated for the future application in the protection of electric power systems from lightning strokes. This technique induces lightning strokes artificially along a laser-produced breakdown plasma channel and conducts them to a harmless place on the ground. To clarify the plasma formation mechanism and the discharge (sparkover) induction process, sparkover induction experiments are performed for two types of long-gap electrode configurations, plate-to-rod and plate-to-plate, with a 50-J TEA CO2 laser. In the present paper, the sparkover voltage characteristics and interferometric measurement on laser-produced plasma mainly are described, together with sparkover induction for a series of metal beads arranged equidistantly which simulate a plasma channel. |
