121. (*) AUTHORS Hirohashi, M; Miyata, H.; Sakae, C. Sakai, T. Uchiyama, TITLE ‘Triggering Lightning by Laser Produced Plasma TYPE conference PAGE 310-313 CONFERENCE Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics LOCATION Baltimore, MD USA DATE, April 24, 1989 KEYWORD applications; laser; pulse power; theoretical; triggered LANGUAGE English ABSTRACT Laser triggering and guiding of a long interelectrode flashover, aimed at triggering lightning, have been studied. Some results of producing a plasma channel in air with a pulsed unstable-mode TEA CO; laser and an experiment on triggering and guiding the interelectrode flashover by the plasma channel are reported. Numerical calculations of the peak intensity of focused laser beam and the length ofthe plasma asa function of ‘beam propagation distance were performed and compared with experiment. 122. (*) AUTHORS: Hojo, 3; Ishii, M. Kawamura, T.; Suzuki, F; Komuro, H.; Shiogama, H. TITLE ‘Seasonal Variation of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Flash Characteristics in the Coastal ‘Area of the Sea of Japan TYPE Journal PAGE 13207-13212 JOURNAL Journal of Geophysicel Research VOLUME 94 NUMBER Du DATE, Sept. 30, 1989 KEYWORD ‘observations; lightning; statistical distributions; seasonal variations LANGUAGE English ABSTRACT ‘Cloud-to-ground lightning flashes ina coastal area ofthe Sea of Japan have been observed for a few years by a magnetic direction-finding system for lightning return strokes. ‘Through the operational evaluation of the system, the data obtained so far have been carefully analyzed and corrected. In winter the activity of lightning does not move {inland farther than 20-30 km from the coastline, and most of the flashes are detected on the sea. Seasonal variations are also found in polarities and magnetic signal strengths of lightning return strokes, 123. (+) AUTHORS Honda, Cj Nakazawa, M.; Takuma, T.; Uchino, K.; Muraoka, K.; Kinoshita, Fs Katahira, 0.; Akazaki, M. TITLE A Study on Laser-Induced Discharge in Atmospheric Air(I) TYPE conference PAGE 289-292 CONFERENCE —_ th International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering Proceedings, vol. 3 89