Laser System to be Tested in Boulder, CO

luv_jeeps writes "Ball Aerospace is going to test fire a laser beam on Sunday night, as part of the CALIPSO project. If you live in the Colorado/Wyoming area, chances are good that you could see it. The article, a little light on details, says that the beam could be as big around as a basketball hoop."

Re:Question... kinda.... star trek reference...

[DAldredge]

The one that begins with the letter L is real.

The other is from a fiction TV show.

Re:laser beam spread

[The Spanish Ninja]

I was wondering about that myself...Where the hell is the focus point? Oh wait, I see now. Had to blow up the picture. It looks like they just blasted the beam out of some kind of an amplifier/emitter thing and didn't even bother to focus it through any kind of a lens...Well, either that or that emitter is some kind of convex lens that amplifies the size of the beam at the sacrifice of intensity. Hard to tell with such a crappy picture...

Re:S. Boom

[Anonymous Coward]

The article says it's 40,000 times the power of a laser pointer. That's no even close to lightning. I strongly doubt it will ionize anything.

Re:S. Boom

[Dyslexicon]

If the laser was strong enough to ionize anything, the laser wouldn't work! all of the energy would go into the air molecules and the beam would be stopped only after traveling only a small fraction of the earth's atmosphere.

moral of the story: no sonic boom. the wavelength of light is chosen so as to minimize the deposition of energy into the atmosphere.

Re:Oooh.

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

That's one hell of a practical joke

rather not. Each time someone pulls of such a joke, we end up with another religion.

Re:Too many scifi movies

[soloport]

So this [howstuffworks.com] must be pure science fiction? And this [rl.ac.uk] research is also fiction, then? If not, then laser energy can superheat air and cause sound problems. Why would it be so ridiculous for me to think a laser the size of a basketball hoop might not have the same effect? (Of course, if I had RTFA more carefully, I might have seen the energy reference -- you're right, it's small-scale.)

Why does air have to be turned into "superhot plasma" to make a sonic boom? A supersonic jet doesn't superheat air, per se, it displaces it. A nighthawk doesn't superheat the air, but produces a sonic boom with its tailfeathers.

And since when did anyone say anything about outer space? The event is happening in Colorado. (Not far from outer space, actually, but...)

And you don't have to be a jerk about how incredibly knowledgeable you are -- we get it without the barbs.

Re:One thing in Colorado's favour...

[mr100percent]

Well, the link says "Since 1958, Canadians and Americans have been partners in protecting the airspace of Alaska, Canada, and the contiguous 48 United states."

I guess it's NATO. Canada invented it after all.

Can't be seen from Fort Collins, CO

[ikewillis]

...which is some 50 miles north of Boulder. Although there's supposedly a snowstorm coming night, right now there are no clouds in the sky whatsoever. Regardless, at present the beam is not visible, and I have heard the same thing from some Denver residents as well.