This video documents an experimental observation of surface discharge (wet flashover) on a water‑covered insulator using the Revealer NEO25C color high‑speed camera. The system provides microsecond‑scale temporal resolution and full‑color plasma imaging, enabling direct assessment of discharge intensity via spectral color signatures.
The camera operated at 138,888 fps (~7 μs resolution) with intelligent optical triggering activated by the light rise at discharge inception. The insulator specimen, uniformly sprayed with deionized water, was subjected to a gradual voltage ramp in a controlled environment.
With arc initiation set as time zero, the key sequence is as follows: 0-7 μs – blue‑violet corona (low‑energy excitation); ~14 μs – bright pinkish‑white main arc breakdown (peak energy); 21-43 μs – transition to orange‑yellow, channel fragmentation and progressive extinction; ~100 μs – faint dark‑red glows, complete deionization.
The entire lifecycle lasts approximately 100 μs, with the main arc window under 10 μs. The color evolution (blue‑violet → pinkish‑white → orange‑yellow → dark red) provides a direct visual indicator of plasma state and discharge intensity, offering practical criteria for insulation degradation assessment and supporting wet‑flashover mechanism studies for grid protection design.
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