Amplitude–Temporal and Spectral Characteristics of Pulsed UHF-SHF Radiation of a High-Voltage Streamer Discharge in Air under the Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract

A special experimental setup with a three-electrode discharge gap was used to study the dynamic characteristics of the ultra-high- and super-high-frequency (UHF-SHF) electromagnetic radiation of a high-voltage discharge having the streamer form with reference to the dynamics of individual streamers at the nanosecond time resolution. We performed synchronous detection of the radiation waveforms using a wideband horn antenna, on the one hand, and high-speed photography of the discharge development in the discharge gap using an ICCD camera, on the other hand. It was found that the high-voltage discharge is a source of radiation in the frequency band up to 10 GHz, which is a series of individual ultrawideband (UWB) bursts having durations of less than 1 ns and leading fronts less than 100 ps long and appears when the streamers moving from the discharge anode (thin wire) meet the discharge cathode (plane). By the order of magnitude, the number of radiation bursts corresponds to the number of streamers that reach the electrode, according to the high-speed photography data. The qualitative data confirmed by simple theoretical estimations show that the sources of UWB radiation pulses are individual streamers at the moment of their contact with the electrode, and the radiation of the streamers can be regarded as transition radiation.

Subnanosecond Electromagnetic Pulse Generated by a Long Spark Discharge: Lightning Implication

“…The experiments described in this work differ from our previous studies of the radiation of electric discharge a cloud of charged water droplets (Gushchin et al, 2021), as well as of compact streamer discharge (Zudin et al, 2022) in their arrangement, which is as close as possible to modeling a lightning strike to a grounded object. Using a MG, it is possible to obtain a high-current spark discharge over several meters long gap with a prolonged (tens of microseconds) development phase of the downward leader.…”

“…The measurements of pulsed SHF radiations of high-voltage discharges at nano-and picosecond time scales were performed in recent years using wideband oscilloscopes and special electromagnetic probes (Gushchin et al, 2021;Parkevich et al, 2022Parkevich et al, , 2023Zudin et al, 2022). In this work, we present the first measurements of the subnanosecond UWB EMP, which is produced by a breakdown of a long air gap (more than 4 m long) using GIN-6MV Marx generator developed at VNIC900 (Istra, Moscow Oblast, Russia) for physical simulation of the lightning and studies of its damage factors.…”

Microwave Cavity Sensor for Measurements of Air Humidity under Reduced Pressure

“…Under controlled external pressure and temperature conditions, the sensor can be used conveniently as a routine humidity control instrument in the laboratory modeling of electric discharge phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere, including air ionization in the field of the electromagnetic pulse [ 38 ] and streamer discharges [ 39 ]. In geophysical sensor applications, one should allow for the influence of temperature on the device readings due to the changes in the geometric dimensions of the cavity.…”