optical phenomena & anomalies » Spider webbing effects

Posted to the enenews webcam forum when it started having problems.

Yesterday, I captured shots of the spiderwebbing effect when it appeared to be clear and not raining or snowing. Maybe there was high humidity or a misty rain on site that doesn’t show on the camera. I have seen the rain splash on the lens distorting the view and thus had dismissed the spiderwebbing effect. Yesterday’s captures were not as distorted by rain splash like what was seen last night. Do all rain/snow events produce the spiderwebbing effect? Is there spiderwebbing without rain/snow? The atmosphere at the plant may contain radioactive gases not normally found in our air. Some of these gases are radioluminescent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioluminescence

“Radioluminescence is the phenomenon by which light is produced in a material by bombardment with ionizing radiation such as beta particles.”
“Radioluminescence is also sometimes seen around high power radiation sources, such as nuclear reactors and radioisotopes.”

Water is a neutron moderator:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_moderator

“In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction involving uranium-235. “

So the question remains, are the spiderwebs an indication of criticality further distorted by rain/snow or just the various light sources reflected and distorted in water droplets?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ywx3cyn4hsqyxx1/Capture68.PNG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1eygeyfr2hn7kjb/12--18-5.avi
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jm1qx8mvu01m5g3/12--18-6.avi




little nuckel-edit: picture

I am just testing here so ignore this post!!

I'm just testing too.

A possible scenario:
The site has radioactive gases in the atmosphere. A rain storm starts developing. Higher humidity keeps radioactive gases from dissipating. Water acts as neutron moderator (Cherenkov Effect. The charged particles emitted by the reactor pass through the dielectric medium faster than the phase velocity of light through the medium. The molecules become polarized and quickly return to their ground state, emitting visible blue light.) Certain gases (tritium) or particulates, (actinium, uranium) could fluoresce when hit with ionizing radiation. Onsite visual effect may be subtle. CCD camera may be more sensitive to overload from higher charges showing as light. Rain droplets start falling further distorting the camera images. Note the black and rust brown smudges forming and rinsing off the lens. Just how nasty is that air. No way to tell if it’s a smudge on the lens or a dark cloud of gas or smoke in the field of view. Rain clears the particulates and radioactive gasses from the atmosphere, reducing the spider webbing light displayed in the camera view.

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http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/div.../FULLTEXT01.pdf

"When the author penetrated the mass of scientific articles in various fields of luminescence, the result was overwhelming confusion. The variation in terminology, sometimes expressing exactly the same physical processes, made comparisons between different articles difficult. During these literature studies, the author encountered at least 10 different terms denoting the identical process of converting light energy from imparted x-ray energy. In the study of phosphors/scintillators, it is therefore important to clearly define the terms and parameters used."

The blue light on the left kept changing in size. Not sure if it's important or not.

Ontological has good info on lens and camera effects.

http://enenews.com/tv-fukushima-fish-mak...3%20-%20respond

I still think it may be the concentrated radioactive atmosphere with plenty of x-ray emissions causing the glows that watched over time seem to reach out to metal grounds and discharge. Tritium lighting effects rather than ce 137 chlorides. They may etch the glass outside cover lens but that effect would be seen with every rain until replaced. In that continuous etching the lens would progressively degrade causing increased spider webbing. Why would effects be seen when not distorted by rain drops? The glass refractive etching explanation also points to the toxic atmosphere where sea salts and radioactive gases form radioactive chemicals.

I dismissed the light effects as water droplets refracting or reflecting the bright light sources nearby until a chat with someone here that worked with outdoor cameras monitoring wildlife. She had never seen these kinds of light effects in rain or snow. Asking if there were nearby bright light sources, she answered that an eagle nest on stadium lights did not show the light effects. I see the other outdoor cams don't show those light effects. Keeping an open mind I had to consider what makes that site different from all the others seen from camera. Captures with little raindrop distortion and watching the unusual movement at normal speed convinced me to look again at the phenomena and explore other explanations. For example, do polluted radioactive rain drops on the lens fluoresce more than a clean raindrop would producing bright spider webbing effects?

“…it is true that both the charge-coupled silicon devices and the metal-oxide semiconductors may produce visible light scintillations in response to ionizing radiation.”

Says alpha more likely to produce light

http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q8921.html

ccd camera and rad info

“Jet pumps located in the annulus between the outer wall of the vessel and an inner wall called the shroud increase the flow of water up through the fuel assembly. At high flow rates steam bubbles are removed more quickly, and hence moderation and reactivity is increased. When flow rate is decreased, moderation decreases as steam bubbles are present for longer and hence reactivity drops.”

From Anne’s excerpt of:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclea...el-Fabrication/

Wonder if rain might be doing the same thing. Heavy rains increasing reactivity. Changing precipitation rates affecting steam bubble formation. Would that hold true for atmospheric conditions in contact with radioactive materials?

"Hot pixels are part of the CCD reality"
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/hotpixels.htm

============

http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/m...xplored-in.html

=========from anne

In short, beta-flare is purple glow caused by radiation above a nuclear power plant. It can't be seen with naked eye because of bright industrial lights those facilities have (after there was several eye witnesses in the 70's so this freaky sight had to be covered up) but even modest digital camera is able to bring it forth in right conditions. Here are some pictures

http://www.thescienceforum.com/physics/13472-beta-flare.html

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chargedbarticle
December 31, 2013 at 7:43 pm • Reply
I just ran across an item displaying a phenomenon remarkable similar to the spiderweb effects we have been seeing at Fuku: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/...-pool.wbbh.html
This took place at a swimming pool in Florida."

Chargedbarticle posted a CNN report of a web effect in a Florida pool. Its the closest to Fuku webs I've seen but the report is unclear about the cause. Did the person really see webs in the pool or just on camera?
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Stills 12-14-2013 had high humidity, maybe misting. Least distortion I’d seen.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa8ic5s9jwaqvec/Capture62.PNG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xrly86b4jy5873/capture63.bmp

Stills 12-19-2013 raining.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ywx3cyn4hsqyxx1/Capture68.PNG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqcxmgiuvv85qmx/Capture73.PNG

Normal speed movies during a snowstorm 2-8-2014:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fziqu06uadygj5...202050-jst1.avi
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ty0uhu3oo865ao...%202100-jst.avi
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4gjoa9gzocrkn...202108-jst1.avi
https://www.dropbox.com/s/es0kaeu8ektev2...%202144-jst.avi
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k12zq6ahoiyp4g...202144-jst2.avi

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Radioluminescence:
A simple model for fluorescent layers
Jan Lindström
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/div.../FULLTEXT01.pdf

"When the author penetrated the mass of scientific articles in various fields of luminescence, the result was overwhelming confusion. The variation in terminology, sometimes expressing exactly the same physical processes, made comparisons between different articles difficult. During these literature studies, the author encountered at least 10 different terms denoting the identical process of converting light energy from imparted x-ray energy. In the study of phosphors/scintillators, it is therefore important to clearly define the terms and parameters used."

Technical pdf with clear definition of terms that might prove helpful, interesting history, the study relates to phosphor screens, not ccd cameras.
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February 15, 2014 at 5:57 am
South Tepcam webs captured from 16:45 to 17:45 jst to watch the lights come on. The gas light comes on at 17:08 jst about 23 minutes in. At 31 mins in the webs start.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9dpx3rtgehc9zy...01645%20jst.avi

While watching before the light show I noticed how the driving rain blurred the red of the cranes into nearby areas. Even if we can get proof the site lights are not causing the webs, what theory to account for the lights? Radiation affecting the ccd cameras? I've gathered info on ccd cameras but they don't show the webs as a known distortion.

The webs are brighter this year than last, but there are more site lights. The site would glow brighter at night than it did last year as seen on the other cams. I would not use the webs or glows as proof of higher emissions. I am not yet convinced what the webs are or aren’t and continue to gather evidence. Watching the webs and guessing what they might be is more fun than watching for a smoke event or another wisp of steam from r3.

Here is a possible way that the ‘spider webs’ could be caused by radiation effects. Water on a camera lens can produce what photographers call orbs. Orbs are water or dust on a camera lens that can reflect light. For the the orb to form, water or dust must stick to the lens. Ordinary raindrops normally do not cause orbs or webs because they run off a vertical lens.

Weird glowing shapes in photos
http://www.assap.ac.uk/newsite/htmlfiles/Weird%20shapes.html

“To produce such weird shapes, the water needs to form a droplet on the lens. If it just runs down the lens, you won't see the strange shapes.”

“The 'weird glowing shape' effect is caused by total internal reflection. Light from the source bounces around inside the water droplet at all sorts of different angles (this accounts for the 'glow'). Some of it emerges to form a highly distorted image of the light source for the camera sensor.”

All about orbs
http://www.assap.ac.uk/newsite/htmlfiles/Orbs%20centre.html

Quisp - “Trouble is, washed-out fallout isn’t distributed in a neat,
uniform radioactive haze. It’s lumpy, sticky, filled with hot particles, and prone to “hot spots”."

“However, radioactive particles can become electrostatically charged as a result of the decay process. Theories have been proposed to describe this self-charging phenomenon, which may have a significant effect on how these particles interact with one another and with charged surfaces in the environment.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20650464

“Alpha particles are positively charged and are therefore attracted to the negative plate in an electric field.
Beta particles are negatively charged and are therefore attracted to the positive plate in an electric field.
Gamma rays are unaffected.”
http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/physics/...-electric-field


Bright light is also required to produce orbs and weird glowing shapes. The light on the site may be a factor. The gas lights are very high intensity with a source that might appear to dance about. There are more gas lights in use than last year. Two additional ones on the south side of r4 seen in TBS but not visible in Tepco South might be the off camera light source for the more intense webs seen lately on Tepco South. The additional gas lights to the north by r1 and r2 may now be the light source for the webs seen recently in the Tepco North view.

Without having access to the camera and an onsite view it will be hard to prove what causes the webs. Sticky radioactive fallout in the raindrops and the unusual bright gas lights might be what is turning dull orbs into a bright, dancing light show.