“In the future, this result is expected to contribute to research into the generation of lightning, which has yet to be fully understood, and to the reduction of lightning damage to cities and people,” said the firm in a statement.
Guided lightning defense
A significant natural danger, lightning is thought to cause between $702 million to $1.4 billion (¥100 and ¥200 billion) in damage in Japan each year. The risk still exists despite current defenses, such as lightning protection for vital infrastructure like the communications facilities of NTT Group.
NTT is responding by developing its lightning protection technology with the goal of completely preventing lightning strikes on important infrastructure and metropolitan areas.