Radiation Characteristics of Air in the Ultraviolet and Vacuum Ultraviolet Regions of the Spectrum behind the Front of Strong Shock Waves

Experiments on the measurement of air emission intensity behind the front of incident shock wave were carried out in a shock tube at an initial pressure of 0.25 Torr and shock wave velocities of 6.3–8.4 km/s. The emission intensity was measured in absolute units both in the form of an integral spectral distribution in a wavelength range of 120?400 nm (panoramic spectra) and as the time evolution of emission at the individual atomic lines of nitrogen and oxygen atoms. The results of the measurements demonstrated that the emission in air behind a shock wave in the vacuum ultraviolet region of 120–200 nm had a much higher radiation flux level than the emission in a range of 200–900 nm.