Investigation of first and second ionization on optical properties of atmospheric plasmas

In this paper, the relation between refractive index and other atmospheric plasma properties including electron, ion and molecule number densities and temperature are calculated. Considering the first and second ionization and the atmospheric air composition, the temperature dependence of the atmospheric plasma on refractive index is obtained by Saha equation. Also, in contrast to conventional models for evaluating electron number density by optical techniques, in which the refractive index of plasmas is approximately assumed equal to electron refractive index, this work is proposed for accurate and absolute measurement of electron density profile and determination of plasma region.