Ultraintense light filaments transmitted through clouds

We demonstrate that ultrashort and ultraintense light filaments survive their interaction with water droplets as large as 95 mum and that they are transmitted through water clouds having an optical thickness as high as 3.2 (transmission 5%). In contrast with linear optics, this remarkable transmission through optically dense media results from a dynamic energy balance between the quasisolitonic structure and the surrounding laser photon bath, which acts as an energy reservoir. Implications for free-space laser communications, remote sensing, and telemetry are discussed. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.