This paper investigates a method to improve the breakdown voltage characteristics of a gas discharge arrester (GDA) for a surge suppressor. The middle electrode is inserted between two terminal electrodes. Voltage application to the electrode synchronized and amplified by the impulse voltage decreases spark overvoltage from 45% to 57.6%. The decrease is caused by higher voltage slope, as opposed to applied impulse voltage (by 5.5 to 6.2 times). In addition, the GDA model using ATP-Draw was used to analyze the operation characteristics of GDAs. The test and simulation results agree to within 2% when the trigger source was used.