Production of chemically active species in the air by a single positive streamer in a nonuniform field

We report the results of a two-dimensional (2-D) simulation of a cylindrically symmetric positive streamer in atmospheric pressure air between a positively stressed point and a grounded plate. A hydrodynamic diffusion drift model was used. It is shown that a streamer propagates with the constant velocity and constant field at the tip (/spl sime/140 kV/cm) and constant electron density in the head (/spl sime/10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/). Special attention has been paid to the generation of excited molecules, radicals, and atoms [chemically active species (CAS)] by the streamer, 2-D distributions of CAS are obtained. The total number of CAS linearly increases with time (except excited oxygen molecules) in accordance with the constant velocity of streamer propagation. The mean energy cost of each active specie is 35 eV.