Editing Plasma afterglow (section)

== History ==
The first published pictures of plasma afterglow were taken in 1953.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1953-12-01|title=Electron Shadowgraphs and Afterglow Pictures of Gas Jets at Low Densities|journal=Journal of Applied Physics|volume=24|issue=12|pages=1527–1528|doi=10.1063/1.1721218|issn=0021-8979|bibcode=1953JAP....24.1527G|last1=Grün|first1=A. E|last2=Schopper|first2=E|last3=Schumacher|first3=B|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Helium afterglow, one of the most commonly used forms of afterglow, was first described in 1963 by  Arthur L. Schmeltekopf Jr. and  H. P. Broida.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=1963-09-01|title=Short‐Duration Visible Afterglow in Helium|journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics|volume=39|issue=5|pages=1261–1268|doi=10.1063/1.1734425|issn=0021-9606|bibcode=1963JChPh..39.1261S|last1=Schmeltekopf|first1=Arthur L|last2=Broida|first2=H. P}}</ref>

The first flowing afterglow ionization studies began in the early 1960s in an effort to understand atmospheric ion chemistry. At the time stationary afterglow studies had already been done however this approach was limited by lack of versatility and lacked consistency as studies done prior to 1964 showed common atmospheric reactions to have drastically differing reaction rates between studies. [[Flowing-afterglow mass spectrometry|Flowing-afterglow]] was then used to more precisely describe the [[Reaction rate constant|rate constants]] of common atmospheric reactions