Can Man Sustain Lightning Bolts with Extreme Voltage AC?

[sid_galt]

Can the electron avalanches like in lightning bolts be sustained using extremely high voltage AC current?

Man-made bolts are much more "wild" and short than the lightning hitting the Earth from the sky. Why is it so? Is this because the electric field in the clouds is less divergent?

 

[Integral]

This is topic of current research, the answer to you question may not be known. There is a article in a recent SiAm which has some good info. Search it out and give it a read. The author seemed to think that high energy cosmic rays played a key role in lighting.