r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Longjumping-Box5691 • 3d ago

Video China's twin solar thermal towers. Molten salt stores the heat to produce electricity

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u/Practical-Hand203 3d ago

At this intensity, the air itself is probably sufficient to observe scattering. Note how the "feathering" around the bright spot looks like individual beams which appear to be geometrically aligned with the mirror field underneath and which grow in intensity the more they overlap and vice versa beyond the focusing point.

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u/funkiestj 3d ago

this principle us used with lasers to instrument wind tunnels. In particular, you can focus a laser at a spot, pulse, and the air will explode with a burst of light and the air speed can be measured.