Susceptibility atmospheric breakdown characteristics of repetitive high power microwave pulse

Breakdown in the atmosphere is a significant issue limiting the transmission of high-power microwave (HPM). The formed plasma not only shield the incident wave, but also reflect HPM to the source after electron density multiplies. A volume-averaged global model is employed to study the characteristics of the repetitive HPM breakdown in the atmosphere. The susceptibility is analyzed considering the external atmosphere environment. Different repetitive HPM parameters is combined to investigate the cumulative effect on the breakdown phenomena. The simulation results show that a critical point exists, indicating the most sensitive height for breakdown. Among the HPM parameters, the pulse width has the greatest impact on the pulse number, and the HPM frequency has the least impact on the pulse number.