Radiation transfer, level and free-electron kinetics in non-equilibrium atomic hydrogen plasma

In this paper, the absorption coefficient and emissivity of non-equilibrium atomic hydrogen plasma have been calculated in the case of a steady state shock wave. For this purpose, the atomic level population profiles along the shock wave have been calculated using a collisional-radiative model coupled with the electron Boltzmann equation. The spectral coefficients are in turn the input for solving a one-dimensional radiative transfer equation, which allows to calculate the radiation intensity and radiative flux in the plasma slab. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.