A luminous plasma jet is produced when helium gas issuing into atmospheric pressure ambient air is excited by high voltage nanosecond pulsing of a dielectric covered electrode. A detailed computational modeling study of such a discharge is presented. The dynamics of streamer propagation, its dependence on the diffusional mixing layer between helium and air species, and the role of photoionization are discussed. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3636433]