article_snippet.sent: It sounds like black magic, but It's actually a cleaner version of cloud seeding, a form of weather modification that has been used for several years -- most famously by China in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, when China launched rockets to seed the clouds and prevent rainfall during the opening ceremony.
article_snippet.sent: But it's hard to tell how effective cloud seeding actually is, and cloud seeding involves the spraying of chemicals into the atmosphere, something which cloud seeding surely doesn't need.
article_snippet.sent: Laser is therefore a completely clean alternative to traditional cloud seeding: Laser's light, and nothing but light.
article_snippet.sent: Just like cloud seeding, cloud can create new clouds where there are none, by inducing condensation: naturally occurring water vapor is condensed into droplets, and ice crystals form, mimicking the natural process that creates clouds.
article_snippet.sent: Laser seeding can make more than clouds: Laser seeding can also trigger lightning.
article_snippet.sent: "us also showed that it's possible to trigger lightning in clouds, within clouds, but not to the ground, yet.
article_snippet.sent: Recent tests have shown promise: " A few years ago, in New Mexico, us moved us big mobile terawatt laser to the top of a mountain and us shot our big mobile terawatt laser up into the atmosphere, trying to trigger lightning.
article_snippet.sent: us didn't, but us could see some small discharge, lightning, within the cloud.
article_snippet.sent: You know, 90 per cent of the lightning discharge are intra-cloud, not against the Earth.