Experimental research on the Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on 1.5 m air gap discharges

Comparative research was carried out to explore the effect of ultraviolet radiation on long air gap discharge under positive lightning impulse. U-t characteristic curves were obtained in natural light case and total shading case, separately. The results show that the breakdown voltage increases with ultraviolet radiation, which is contrary to our conjecture. The difference of high speed images and current waves in two cases also demonstrates that ultraviolet radiation does have an effect on the long air gap discharge.