Prior to the flashover across an insulator in vacuum, the insulator surface is usually charged. It is of great importance to investigate the charging phenomena for better understanding the flashover characteristics. It is considered that there are two kinds of mechanisms closely related to the surface charging of insulator i.e., the secondary electron emission occurred over an insulator, and while employing a perfect electrode contact ahead of electron emission into vacuum, the charge injection and accumulation occurred inside the surface layer of an insulator. Based on the rigorous analysis of the kinetic processes of both primary and secondary electrons, the related surface charges were theoretically deduced. Involving the detrapping of charges trapped and the recombination of charges injected, the charging process due to charge injection and accumulation was analyzed. Some formulas were given to express the density of surface charges. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.