In order to reveal the mechanism of nanosecond pulse plasma flow control and then enhance the boundary layer control ability of plasma aerodynamic actuation, the electric characteristic and the body force of plasma aerodynamic actuation of different time scales are diagnosed experimentally. The results indicate that the inceptive discharge voltages for microsecond, millisecond and nanosecond pulse actuation are nearly the same, but the maximum discharging current of nanosecond pulse actuation is 4 A, which is much higher than that of the microsecond and of the millisecond. The body force will increase with the rise of the actuation voltage; the differences of the vertical components of the body force induced by plasma aerodynamic actuation of different time scales are little, but the horizontal components induced by millisecond and microsecond actuation are greater.