Swiss researchers have successfully used laser pulses to create small clouds in the laboratory, a technology they say could possibly be used to create rain on demand.
After firing short pulses of infrared laser light into a chamber filled with water-saturated air at -24 degrees C, scientists observed linear clouds in the laser’s wake — similar to the jet contrails created by airplanes.
In addition, they found the volume of condensed water droplets inside the chamber increased by half.