Title: Experimental modelling of highAltitude atmospheric discharges in the laboratory

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of a pulsed streamer discharge, similar to that in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Two experimental setups providing the formation of ionization waves propagating in one and opposite directions from a region filled with a plasma formed by the different types of discharge in low and average pressures atmospheric air were created. In a physical experiment, the process of propagation of red and blue ionization waves (streamers) was simulated. It was established that the average propagation velocities of fronts of red streamers corresponds to those of red sprites and blue streamers corresponds to those of blue jets. This was shown as a result of spectral studies that at air pressures of 0.08–3 Torr, the radiation color radiation observed visually and captured on an integral photograph from the region of passage of ionization waves is determined by the spectral transitions of the first positive system (FPS) of nitrogen molecules, similar to what occurs for red sprites. In this case, the spectral energy density of radiation in the most intense band of the second positive system (SPS) of the nitrogen molecule with a wavelength of 337.13 nm is an order of magnitude or more higher than that in the most intense band of the FPS with the wavelength of 775.32 nm. The created setups makes it possible to simulate the process of formation of red sprites propagating in opposite directions under laboratory conditions. Using the emission spectra and methods of optical emission spectroscopy (OES), the main parameters of the discharge plasma are estimated.