It doesn't need to, nor is there any claim made of "self-organising" - you're introducing that bunk yourself. Every photon that enters the optical aparatus appearing to be coming from the direction of the blocking object *necessarily* came from outside the column of air between aperature and object, and then was scattered such that it entered the aperture. The image *can* be interpreted to have meaning.
I disagree. The diagram self-produced by member john.phil shows light doing things it doesn't do. I think that's important. If you don't think that's important... I don't know what to say.
The main issue remains that this so-called "colorimetry" technique is useless and random.
MW has not received a response to his email. I suspect that's because the address is long abandoned. There's no indication that Boris Ephimovich Zhilyaev is still an active researcher or even alive.
The facility known as the
Main Astronomical Observatory of Academy of Science of Ukraine is a relict. A tourist attraction. It's unclear whether or not there was an official skeleton staff still there even before the current lamentable war. I've seen some indication that at least one emeritus professor still used one of the minor telescopes - a 16 inch Celestron - and there was a demonstration using the solar telescope several years back.
Zhilyaev's research seems to have been largely concerned with
Slitless spectroscopy and techniques for interpreting data gathered by the highly specialized equipment used in that technique. Ordinary video cameras aimed at the sky can't gather that kind of data.
I suspect that someone... and this is just my suspicion...
someone used Zhilyaev's name, and attempted... in a very naïve way... to use some of his techniques for interpreting data. (A museum volunteer? An undergraduate student?)
Here's an example of Zhilyaev's work:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3103/S0884591313030057
The telescope:
http://www.terskol.com/telescopes/zeiss.htm
Used a grating spectrograph.
The facility at Terskol peak is modern. In use when the relicts at the Main Astronomical Observatory of Academy of Science of Ukraine (barely above sea level and under the light polluted skies of a major city) probably were not.
http://www.terskol.com/telescopes/lhs_telescope.htm
One should be able to get some idea of the level of sophistication involved in spectroscopy.
Slitless spectroscopy is used... in very specific circumstances... in astronomy.
But even with the proper equipment, it seems highly unlikely to this (very) amateur astronomer that this technique could be used to measure distances(!) of moving objects(!) inside the atmosphere(!).
We all understand Rayleigh scattering. The issue is that the technique has no validity. The only thing measured is the video frames themselves, not the objects depicted in the video frames.
