Photoionization and Optical Emission Effects of Positive Streamers in Air at Ground Pressure

Ningyu Liu (1) , Sébastien Célestin (2) , Anne Bourdon (2) , Victor Pasko (3) , Pierre Ségur (4) , Emmanuel Marode (5)

1 GPL - GPL
2 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion
3 CSSL - Communications and Space Sciences Laboratory [PennState]
4 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
5 LPGP - Laboratoire de physique des gaz et des plasmas

A positive streamer in a weak electric field in air at ground pressure is investigated by utilizing a recently developed photoionization model based on the radiative transfer theory. The modeling results on the streamer emissions demonstrate that blue emissions of the second positive band system of N2 dominate the streamer spectra, in contrast to streamers in predominately red sprite discharges observed at low air pressures at high altitudes in the Earth's atmosphere.

Mots clés: Optical emissions; photoionization; sprites; streamer coronae

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

Ningyu Liu, Sébastien Célestin, Anne Bourdon, Victor Pasko, Pierre Ségur, et al.. Photoionization and Optical Emission Effects of Positive Streamers in Air at Ground Pressure. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 2008, 36 (4), pp.942-943. ⟨10.1109/TPS.2008.927088⟩. ⟨hal-00314269⟩