I've investigated further.
The screen flicker lasts for approximately 1 sec and then disappears. It rotates with the camera as if it is produced by two orthogonal planes one in front of the camera and the other lying on the y coordinate of the emitter.
The vertical and horizontal lines disappear after 1 sec, however, a second spurious, flickering plane occurs just in front of the emitter (see arrow in attached screen shot).
I've tried recreating this error in the particle demos, but have been unable.
Mr Grumpy
GrumpyOne - the natural state of the programmer