[Physics] Distorted colors of Google StreetView photographs near electric power lines

capacitanceelectric-circuitselectromagnetic-radiationelectromagnetism

This is a followup to my question:

Cyclist's electrical tingling under power lines

Some users presented a convincing picture that the electric shocks under power lines are primarily from the electric fields, not the magnetic one, because the frequency is just too low, and the body must be considered as a capacitor to estimate the currents etc.

Google Maps just included pretty much all of the Czech Republic to the Street View. That's why I could look at the place where I had felt the electric shocks. First, the mast over there clearly corresponds to 400 kV according to a list of masts (model 8a-3), a pretty high voltage. But it's even more interesting to see what the Google car was seeing in front of itself at the same point where I experienced the shocks.

enter image description here

A pretty nice colorful distortion. It is strongly correlated with the masts so I guess it has something to do with the electric fields, too. Am I right? If I am right, what are the electric fields that may cause similarly strong effects in the digital cameras used by Google or others? There are lots of capacitors in those digital cameras, aren't there?

Why is the ordering of the anomalous colors yellow, cyan, violet (from the top towards the bottom where the treetops and roofs are located)? Is it linked to different capacities or voltages or other electric parameters of the three color-sensitive segments of the digital camera?

A blog URL related to the Street View anomalies in Czechia.

Best Answer

I don't think these distortions are necessarily caused by the power lines. Going along some way forward on your link, under the power lines and then some more, you get to this image,

enter image description here

which shows the distortion in front of the car over an area far from the power lines, when the car is also pretty far from them.

EDIT: There's also some distortion inside the village, with only low-voltage lines around, which I presume the car passed before the image above (based on the blue signs). Going along that road in the opposite direction to traffic the coverage from that day stops at this crossing (at which the clouds miraculously vanish), and on this one on the other side. (i.e., the cloudy-day coverage is limited to a pretty short, straight stretch of road.)

On the other hand, exploring the sunny side I only found distortion near the power lines.

I also found this halo and this one, which are pretty cool.

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