Houard, A.Walch, P.Produit, T.Moreno, V.Mathieu, B.Sunjerga, AntonioHerkommer, C.Mostajabi, AmirhosseinAndral, U.André, Y.Lozano, M.Bizet, L.Schroeder, M.C.Schimmel, M.Moret, M.Maurice, O.Esmiller, B.Michel, K.Haas, T.Metzger, T.Rubinstein, M.Rachidi, FarhadCooray, VernonMysyrowicz, A.Kasparian, J.Wolf, J.P.2024-01-122024-01-122024-01-122023https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/202868Controlling lightning is a long-time dream of mankind. Along with the rapid evolution of laser technologies, the idea to develop lightning protection based on filamentation of high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers emerged in the 1990s [1]. The goal of the Laser Lightning Rod (LLR) project that started in 2017 was to investigate a new type of lightning protection based on the use of upward lightning discharges initiated through a high-repetition-rate terawatt laser [2]. To that end, a high-power laser was developed by Trumpf scientific with pulse energy in the Joule-range, 1 ps pulse duration, and a repetition rate of 1 kHz [3]. This CPA laser system is based on Yb-YAG thin-disk technology allowing amplification at very high average power at a wavelength of 1030 nm.text::conference output::conference paper not in proceedings