A simple ray tracing model is developed to establish the relationship between the distributions of observed visible light and the excited Xe species in a PDP cell. The ray tracing model can obtain the density distribution of the excited Xe species. It shows the two independent discharge modes created during a single period of sustaining discharge. The maximum density of excited Xe species is located about $148{mu}m$ away from the center of the gap between two sustaining electrodes. We also found the loss rate of VUV photons by comparing the luminance profile predicted in our theoretical model from experimental results. According to calculations based on our model, only about 22 percent of the photons can impinge the phosphor layer.