Volume discharge in the supersonic shock‐heated gas flow

The paper is concerned with the results of experimental investigation of a discharge in supersonic flows of a CO2:N2:He mixture. Simultaneous measurements are made of current and discharge voltage in a medium as well as of the gain coefficient of a small signal both due to gasdynamic ‘‘freezing’’ and due to electric preexcitation. Results are presented on measuring the initial electron density in supersonic gas flows of vibrational excited molecules.