The results from an experimental study of impulse surface discharge occurring in an electrode system containing a dielectric plate are presented. On one of its sides, the plate had a corona-producing electrode made of 50 mm thick copper foil grounded through a current shunt for measuring the discharge current. On its other side, the plate had a high-voltage electrode, to which the voltage from a pulse generator was applied. The article presents the results from measurements of the initial voltage and the sizes of the surface discharge area in air when applying single voltage pulses with different pulse front steepness in the range 0,1–3,4 kV/ms and amplitude in the range 7–15 kV. The measurements were carried out for different dielectric barrier materials with the e values from 2 to 35. The dielectric barrier thickness was 0,9–1,8 mm. The study results have shown that the initial surface discharge ignition voltage depends essentially on the voltage pulse parameters, whereas the barrier characteristics have a weaker effect on this voltage. It has been determined that the discharge has different discharge zone length and different structure depending on the dielectric barrier properties and applied voltage parameters. The streamer zone sizes decrease with increasing the barrier material e value at the same voltage pulse steepness and increase with increasing the steepness for each barrier material. The data obtained for a wide range of external conditions can be used in numerical modeling of discharge.