This is indeed a 1 watt green laser swung through an arc into trees. So why does it look like a field of grass?
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The things that trick you are firstly the exposure of 1.3 seconds. Secondly, it was taken in fog. so the distant beam fades out in most of the right upper half. Thirdly and most difficult to recognize is the spots of light (poorly focused up close). These are simply the micro droplets of water that compose fog. These become real bright with a 1 W laser and being so small don’t cast a shadow. It looks even better in real time.
The diffraction grating contains about 2000 dots and that puts each dot at about 1/2 mW which is at a laser pointer “safe” intensity.
A lot of care must be taken before arming and firing this laser without a diffraction beam. In particular avoiding specular reflections and making sure to use red goggles (I have 2 sets). Use a camera to observe the beam instead. I must test the IR component of this otherwise red glasses may be dangerously and invisibly ineffective. Infrared can pose a danger with standard green pointers with frequency doubling but I think this one must be a direct emission green laser diode.
The 1 W green laser is powerful enough to pop balloons.
Once I have finished experimenting with this I will give it to a friend in the US who has a laser trained background and good sense to use it responsibly.
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Photo Date: 2014