researchers are trying to control lighting strikes!
Evil geniuses 'r' us already have a design for that.
The Fist-Of-God revenge weapon.

Consists of:
Drainpipe
Battery/launch controller
Copper wire
Solid fuel rocket
Lightning detector
Small explosive shaped charge

Pipe hidden in auger hole.
Lightning detector controls rocket launch.
Shaped charge blows the soil off the top of the tube before launch
Rocket trails copper wire, earthed to metal drainpipe
Gets up to a few hundred feet
ZOT !
Lightning vapourises the copper wire and then multiple strikes up and down the metallised conductive path.
If the FoG is buried close to your target, it increases the chance of a strike.

I've read enough of the Wizard of ID to know lightning always goes Zot