Our studies have shown that the effect of metal vapors on the color of the discharge plasma is much greater in the case of a pulsed breakdown in a nonuniform electric field. This made it possible to compare with the color of various discharges occurring in the upper atmosphere (Figure 1 in the text of the article). Even with well-studied discharges, it is very difficult to obtain such results. Thus, during an arc discharge, although there is a strong evaporation of the electrodes and the ejection of particles of various sizes, the voltage across the gap is low and the discharge in metal vapors outside the high-temperature arc channel is practically absent. Under these conditions, broadband Planck radiation from the arc channel plasma is observed. In a glow discharge, the sputtering of the electrodes has a low rate, and the emission spectra of the plasma of such discharges contain atomic and molecular transitions of the gases used. In the investigated mode, metal vapors are produced and excited by a pulsed discharge.
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