Spatio-temporal structure and emission of a large plasmoid in atmosphere

Abstract

Atmospheric plasmoids with 20–30 cm diameter are generated via a high-voltage discharge above a water surface. They ascend in the ambient air and exist autonomously for several hundreds of milliseconds. The plasma processes leading to an emission of visible light for more than 350 ms after detachment from the energy supply are still unknown. Visual and spectroscopic high-speed diagnostics with spatial resolution are thus applied. It is shown for the first time that the free-floating body turns to a torus ring to the end of its lifetime, which ascends in air up to more than 1.5 m and radiates longer than 1.5 s in the infrared spectral range, only limited by the structural circumstances in the laboratory. Vortex formation is thus endorsed as being responsible for the structural integrity of the plasma during the autonomous phase. Emission in the optical spectral range (UV-NIR) is limited to the first 500 ms and is governed by radiation from the tap water contents without the influx of ambient air into the plasma. The OH A-X transition is the most intense emission during the entire visible evolution of the plasmoid. Atomic hydrogen emission is observed only during the first 100 ms close to the central electrode (CE) and is highly dynamic, while emission from dissolved salts is detected during the later evolution but is mostly overlaid by a continuum radiation, which is clearly non-thermal. Using the omnipresent OH emission, the optical emission profile of the main plasmoid is shown to be broad in the center and is rotationally symmetric. The radiated energy from the OH radical integrated over the entire plasmoid evolution is less than 100 J, which is about 3% of the total energy dissipated into the plasma. Emission from dissolved sodium is used to track the plasma channel, which connects the main plasmoid to the CE, during its ascension after energy shut-down giving a fourfold ascension velocity compared to the main plasmoid.