The product of recombination coefficient and instantaneous electron density (&ggr;ne, was measured for a UV‐preionized discharge operating at atmospheric pressure for a gas mixture containing CO2, N2, and He in the ratio 1:1:8, over a range of operating field (E/N) from 0.5×10−16V cm2to 6.0×10−16V cm2. This data is used in a computer program to simulate the discharge. Good agreement is observed between experimental current and voltage with those predicted by the program. It was also found that the pulse shapes are critically dependent on &ggr;neand this must be accurate to be useful in predicting the behavior of UV‐preionized discharges.