If you like conspiracy theories you will love this 5 minute video – Chinese satellites with lasers can direct infra-red beams to start one meter square fires in pulses over several minutes and miles
From here: h/t mrskylight108
CCP Satellites Over Maui At Time of Fires (rumble.com)
Make of this what you will. Pretty scary stuff.
Onwards!
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Tech ingredients made a video about this. Could satellite lasers really do this?..
See -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MVs37rxJL0
It is a great addition to the discussion. With some more technical and practical information. Also look in the comments for people with experience with satellites.
Based on that video, I likely have overestimated the energy necessary for a fire. But also more details need to be figured out. It is a good thing that technical people are looking how it could work or not work exactly.
It was very windy, and looked cloudy. And any water in the air absorbs infra-red. Far more than CO2 and Ozone.
Lasers also have a problem with energy and distance. (1) How much energy can the laser output? 500watt for 1 minute? (Energy=500x60= 30 kJoule). Or 5Gwatt for 1 nanosecond (Energy= 5 Joule).
(2) Do you know that a laser beam diverges and disperses? How much well can the laser focus its output-energy to an area? From 200 kms high it is around 1 square mile? Or 1 square meter?
One joule can increase the temperature of one liter of water to 1 degrees in Celsius. So 5 joules is nothing.
And 30 kJoule over 60 minutes gives the target time to cool down. Compare that to the sun with about 1000 watt per square meter, 60 kJoule/minute.
And based on these numbers, it looks like these lasers are pretty much harmless. I think they may want use it for other satellites? The known military weapons are all for close range, like a few kilometers.
Even the Boeing YAL-1 (with a huge and very powerful chemical laser) was only short range capable. See-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-dEXaSJWME Modern lasers are electrically powered are smaller but have far less power output. There were also theoretical plans for nuclear explosion powered space lasers, but that required a nuclear explosion. If I am missing something, some new technology, please let me know.
So personally, I think it was just simple arson, strengthened by the strong wind. The wind also kept the fires low to the ground. People like to blame other countries or top secret tech, but just like in Greece pyromaniacs and eco-terrorists can do the trick.