Monitoring of Optical Emission from High Temperature Plasma Based on Chromatic Modulation

An integrated experimental approach is presented for processing the optical emission produced from electric arc plasma. The method is based on chromatic modulation techniques to provide a holistic measurement of the persistence of particle decays within the environment of high power circuit breakers. Chromaticity changes in a number of chromatic parameters are related to changes in physical electric arc plasma environment (e.g. particle concentration). The results are in the form of chromatic maps which show how the overall electric arc plasma and its environment behave and respond. Such maps show the totality of information which can be accessed about the arcing event and the level of monitoring discrimination which is achievable with the chromatic methodology in a simple and easy to understand manner. The suggested method provides easier data analysis and high levels of data compression.