Parameters of a positive column in a gliding glow discharge in air

This paper describes the results of investigation of the positive column in a glow discharge at atmospheric pressure. The total discharge current is varied from 0.02 A to 0.22 A that corresponds to the current density from 25 A/cm(2) to 125 A/cm(2). It is demonstrated that the effective gas pressure in the column lies in a range (60-90) Torr, and the reduced electric field is changed from 16 V/cm Torr at minimum current to 8 V/cm Torr when the current is increased to 0.22 A. The principal processes that are responsible for sustaining the plasma column have been defined. The main channel of the charged particle losses is the dissociative recombination of the ion NO+. The comparable contribution into the ionization gives the ionizing collisions of electrons with the oxygen molecules in the ground state, the ionization of NO molecules, and the associative ionisation when the metastable nitrogen molecules collide with each other. Published by AIP Publishing.