Thermal Imaging/Remote Sensing Devices

[starsplitter]

Has anyone had experience with using thermal imaging to locate cave entrances or man made structures (including very old roads) covered under thick vegetation? I looked at OKW's thermal imager... looks great, but the price seems off the charts.

Do you have suggestions on devices? Can you relate your experiences using them? Thank you.

 

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[woof!]

Thermal imaging equipment is expensive. How effective it is for the purposes you describe depends on the conditions and on your skill.

Regarding OKW, beware flimflammery and outright fraud. There are plenty of respectable manufacturers in the underground detection and thermal imaging industries.

--Dave J.

 

[starsplitter]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply.

I am aware that conditions and skill are factors with thermal imaging. I'm trying to connect with someone who has actually used it as a tool in the field. So far, I just have bits and pieces of "real life" feedback. As for OKW... I am not going to pursue that avenue. Cost is a factor, but mostly just too much bad press.

I found a Raytheon unit (used/recondition 250) that was recommended by a Tom Sever (same NASA guy who used thermal and SAR in the Yucatan), for $2,500 - $3,000. It also had a mini trial in Peru by an amateur. However, there wasn't enough data provided to make an informed decision.

Again, thanks.

Mark

 

[UncleMatt]

I am going on a lost mine search for 9 days in the San Juan/Laplata mountains in August. One of the areas I want to search supposedly has a mine portal covered with logs, dirt, and rocks to conceal it. While surveying the area with google earth, it also occurred to me that a covered mine portal might show up at a different wavelength than the surrounding ground on a thermal imaging camera. I have no experience with this technology, and wanted to run it by this forum and see if anyone here has some info on this. Has anyone here ever attempted to use thermal imaging equipment to try to locate a subsurface feature? If the sun warmed a canyon side, and then night fell, it seems logical that an open space hidden underground on that canyon side would have absorbed less heat. Seems like you should be able to image that area of lower temperature on a thermal imaging camera. It sounds good, but does it work in the field?

 

[Bum Luck]

Archaeology Magazine - Maya Caves of West-Central Belize: Remote Sensing

Good luck getting NASA data though.

 

[UncleMatt]

Archaeology Magazine - Maya Caves of West-Central Belize: Remote Sensing

Good luck getting NASA data though.

Hmmm, my step-mom worked there on the Mercury missions. She still has friends there...

I will check out your link and get back to you.

 

[UncleMatt]

Did some checking, and unless those guys in the article have access to additional data, the resolution of the NASA Landsat7 satellite thermal scans is at 30 and 60 meters per pixel. Kinda hard to detect a mine portal that is at most a couple of meters wide with that low resolution.

http://www.landcover.org/data/landsat/

 

[Bum Luck]

Well, I don't have to tell you NASA can do better than that. GeoEye-1 claims 1.6 feet, which I don't doubt.

 

[UncleMatt]

Well, I don't have to tell you NASA can do better than that. GeoEye-1 claims 1.6 feet, which I don't doubt.

But what wavelength is that in? Is it visible light spectrum, or thermal spectrum?

 

[Bum Luck]

Don't know much about thermal, but their LIDAR data (radar band) resolution is spectacular. Resolution is ultimately a function of wavelength, unless otherwise degraded by sampling intervals.

There's an old story about an engineering college getting early data back in the 80's to study wave heights in the ocean, and in the process discovered wave structures that proved to be submarine wakes, not even thought of by the US Navy at that point.

Here's a link to a Navy document that is interesting:
https://torpedo.nrl.navy.mil/tu/ps/pdf/pdf_loader?dsn=2950041

Can't paste the text from it, sorry.

 

[thermal]

Thermographic Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS)

Originally designed for geological research, TIMS picks up visible, infrared, microwave, and thermal data in a single shot and allows archeologists to examine potential sites in spectral bands best suited to their particular needs. TIMS units mounted onto satellites and aircraft and can detect and image patterns of disturbed soil at high resolution up to 30 feet below ground. This remote-sensing tool is particularly useful for showing buried geologic features, such as ancient river beds, along which people may have settled.

NOVA | Lost Roman Treasure | Remote Excavation | PBS

 

[UncleMatt]

Thermographic Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS)

Originally designed for geological research, TIMS picks up visible, infrared, microwave, and thermal data in a single shot and allows archeologists to examine potential sites in spectral bands best suited to their particular needs. TIMS units mounted onto satellites and aircraft and can detect and image patterns of disturbed soil at high resolution up to 30 feet below ground. This remote-sensing tool is particularly useful for showing buried geologic features, such as ancient river beds, along which people may have settled.

NOVA | Lost Roman Treasure | Remote Excavation | PBS

Not much at that link, and not much online about this technology either. I will try to find out more.

 

[thermal]

Remote Sensing Tutorial Page 9-7

 

[UncleMatt]

From that link:

"Ground equivalent resolution is 18 m (59 ft)." So this technology has very low resolution.