1. Thermal Imaging
  2. Applications
  3. Environmental Studies

Ther­mo­graphic Biologic and Geologic Studies

Detect minimal thermal reactions to environmental stimuli and changes

  • Excellent thermal resolution allows for detection of smallest signals

  • Infrared cameras can track fast animals even during night-time

  • Most suitable infrared lenses focus high geometric resolution on animals, plants and landscapes

Thermal image of a vulcano

Ther­mo­graphy – Meas­ure­ment of Smal­lest Temper­ature Details

The vast majority of biologic processes only result in small temperature difference as they are always connected to a rather high energy consumption organisms try to avoid. Likewise, hydrological and geophysical anomalies within the thermal spectrum come with only lower thermal signatures.

InfraTec offers infrared camera models which suit the resulting demands in thermal resolution and thereby, guarantee for usable results of your studies. For instance, you can most precisely follow the thermal day cycles of plants which can lead to new results when monitoring the reaction of biotopes to external stress.

Event On Demand

High-Resol­u­tion Aerial Ther­mo­graphy

  • Aerial thermography: Definition, benefits, types, presence and future

  • Applications for thermography in airborne remote sensing and

  • Challenges of aerial thermography and technical requirements for an IR camera system

  • Important and relevant selection criteria

  • Accessories (hardware and software) needed to solve the measurement task

Request Recording

Case Studies about Ther­mo­graphy in Envir­on­mental Studies

InfraTec & KWS Saat - Thermography in Plant Research ©KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA

The Seeds of the Future

Environmental conditions today often tend towards extremes. Many areas are very humid and wet, while others are predominantly dry. Particularly in the second case, cultivating raw materials such as grain, beet or maize is a challenge. A challenge that KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA is facing. As part of its plant research, the company uses the VarioCAM® HD head 900 infrared camera from InfraTec to analyse the behaviour of plants during drought stress and pest infestation.

InfraTec & Highland Helicopters - Aerial Fire Mapping ©Highland Helicopters Dunedin, New Zealand

Catching Fire – Aerial Fire Mapping

Wildfires are a permanent threat for several regions around the world – and the global climate change is adding to the number and severity of these events. Fighting them is a huge challenge, strong winds, heat and inaccessibility make it even more difficult and dangerous for those who risk their life to protect others. One approach to tackle wildfires is the usage of airborne fire mapping.

thermal imaging for climate research

Ther­mo­graphy for Climate Research

Climate research is one of the most exposed types of academic research these days. With the continuous discussion about extreme weather events and long‐term implications of human‐made climate factors the related science has become a part of everyone´s daily life.

Study of bats - Picture credits: © iStock.com / fermate

Ther­mo­graphy for Envir­on­mental Studies

In order to protect bat populations firstly their ecology has to be understood but it can be very difficult to study the small, nocturnal mammals in the wild. Infrared thermography offers solutions to many of the problems faced by bat ecologists.

VarioCAM® High Definition: Klimaanlage nach Bienenart

Unin­ter­rupted Surveil­lance of Animal Beha­viour

Study of bats; nesting

The behaviour of animals can easily be tracked by visual cameras. But those cameras also just easily come to their limits. Additional light or activation sources for using visual surveillance technologies would be needed. But those will also interfere with the biological behaviour of animals. An infrared camera helps here as it allows to monitor even during absolute darkness. Beside of this you will also be able to detect perfectly camouflaged animals as their camouflage normally works in the visible spectrum only. Thereby for instance airborne countings of populations will become feasible using an infrared camera.

Contact to thermography division of InfraTec

Would You Like to Know More?

It is not unusual for tasks to be associated with special requirements. Discuss your specific application needs with our specialists, receive further technical information or learn more about our additional services.

United Kingdom & Irland
InfraTec GmbH Infrarotsensorik und MesstechnikGostritzer Straße 61 - 6301217 DresdenGERMANY

Public­a­tions of our Customers

Assessing crop water stress of winter wheat by ther­mo­graphy under different irrig­a­tion regimes in North China Plain, Shamaila Zia-Khan et al., University of Hohenheim

Satel­lite and Ground Based Thermal Obser­va­tion of the 2014 Effusive Erup­tion at Strom­boli Volcano, Klemen Zaksek et al., ROSEN Group

Tree species diversity affects canopy leaf temper­at­ures in a mature temperate forest, Sebastian Leuzinger, Christian Körner, University of Basel

Tree surface temper­ature in an urban envir­on­ment, Sebastian Leuzinger et al., University of Basel

Estim­ating soil hydraulic prop­er­ties from infrared meas­ure­ments of soil surface temper­at­ures and TDR data, Christian Steenpass et al., Forschungszentrum Jülich

Non-invasive water status detec­tion in grapevine by ther­mo­graphy, Shamaila Zia et al., Universität Hohenheim

Topo­graph­ic­ally controlled thermal-habitat differ­en­ti­ation buffers alpine plant diversity against climate warming, Daniel Scherrer, Christian Körner, University of Basel

Infrared ther­mo­metry of alpine land­scapes chal­lenges climatic warming projec­tions, Daniel Scherrer, Christian Körner, University of Basel

Infrared Camera: VarioCAM® Series

Blatttem­per­atur von Bäumen im städtischen Umfeld, Sebastian Leuzinger, Auckland University of Technology

Quantum cascade laser-based hyper­spec­tral imaging of biolo­gical tissue, Niels Kröger et al., University of Heidelberg

Infrared Camera: VarioCAM® hr head

Thermal imaging reveals massive heat accu­mu­la­tion in flowers across a broad spec­trum of alpine taxa, Lars Dietrich, Christian Körner, University of Basel

Infrared Camera: VarioCAM® series

Thermal canopy photo­graphy in forestry - an altern­ative to optical cover photo­graphy, N. Nölke et al., Georg-August-University Göttingen

Infrared Camera: VarioCAM® hr head

Comparison and Combination of Thermal, Fluorescence, and Hyperspectral Imaging for Monitoring Fusarium Head Blight of Wheat on Spikelet Scale, Anne-Katrin Mahlein et al., Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn

Characterization of SRM plumes with alumina particulate in subscale testing, Dominik Saile et al., German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Flowering phenology in alpine grassland strongly responds to shifts in snowmelt but weakly to summer drought, Ansgar Kahmen et al., University of Basel

Applic­a­tion Specific Lens Solu­tions Offer Optimal Resol­u­tion-FOV Ratio

InfraTec offers a wide range of interchangeable lenses for its infrared camera models being configurable with highly resolving detectors. Thereby the ratio between detail resolution and size of field of view can be set in the best way for your specific needs. For example you can measure temperatures of smallest animals using microscopic lenses as well as the full width of landscapes by applying wide-angle lenses. For images taken from planes, UAVs or helicopters a variety of telephoto lenses are available for you, too.

Flight thermography

Gimbal Systems for Heli­copter Mounting

InfraTec offers various infrared camera systems for fixed mount use in airplanes as well as for integration into precision gimbals. Thereby, the infrared camera can be exactly positioned within a µrad range to track automatically. A handy remote control allows for camera operation directly via the control of the gimbal.

Gimbals, or gyro-stabilized platforms, have been used for many years as very effective systems for airborne thermography in the inspection of high-voltage power lines, pipelines and industrial plants, as well as in the search for energy and material pollution.

Gimbal for helicopter mount

Due to their high-precision stabilization, images of distant objects can be accurately captured despite movement of the airborne vessel carrying the gimbal. Integrated into the gimbal are cameras for both, the visible (visual camera) and in the infrared radiation spectrum (infrared camera), a laser rangefinder and laser target designators.

Flyer Gimbal system for helicopter mount

Advant­ages of this Ther­mo­graphy Solu­tions in this Applic­a­tion

MicroScan feature ImageIR

Micro­Scan – Quad­ruple the Image Format

Behind the function is a fast-rotating MicroScan wheel, which is integrated into the camera. It ensures that four different individual exposures are taken per wheel revolution, which are offset laterally by half a pixel each. In this way, thermography achieves a new quality due to thermal images providing a quadrupled spatial resolution.

Thermography with ImageIR series - HDR feature - Picture credits: © iStock.com / Vershinin M

HDR – Simultaneous Mapping of Wide Temperature Ranges

The High Dynamic Range (HDR) function of the Infrared ImageIR® camera series enables measurement scenarios with extremely different temperatures to be recorded continuously. When recording in HDR mode, multiple thermograms with different integration times and different filters are recorded quickly in succession and compiled into an overall image with a high dynamic range. The measuring range can span up to 1,500 K. Users obtain high-contrast images in a wide temperature range characterized by high measurement accuracy.

HighSense for thermographic camera series ImageIR®

High­Sense – Always the Optimal Camera Setting

Thanks to HighSense, ImageIR® users have the option of setting up individual measuring ranges based on the factory calibration that best suit the respective task. Depending on the measuring task, the required temperature range can be selected and the optimum integration time for this purpose is calculated – or one decides to proceed in reverse order. Thus, the calibration can be retained even in the case of changed integration times.

InfraTec Service Calibration Rig

Auto Calibration

The Auto Calibration option expands the HighSense function to include automatic, dynamic adaptation of the integration time. This ensures the utmost temperature measuring accuracy and an optimised signal-to-noise ratio throughout the process. The wellfill of a detector is usually optimal in certain areas of the dynamic range. If the measured object signal is outside theses or user-specified limits, the integration time is readjusted.

Thermografie-Kameraserie ImageIR® mit neuer 10 GigE-Schnittstelle

10 GigE Inter­face for a Strong Increase in Output

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet interface of the high-end camera series ImageIR® opens this extremely fast transmission standard with a NIC specially developed by InfraTec. This works with optical or electrical transceiver modules that are easy to change and are called SFP+.

InfraTec glossary - Rotating filter- und aperture wheel

Separate Filter & Aper­ture Wheel – Spec­tral Ther­mo­graphy

The combination of a separate filter and aperture wheel, allowing a total of 35 freely selectable combinations, is prerequisite for a universal application in measurement tasks with high object temperatures and in the field of spectral thermography. The neutral density filters used for signal attenuation or the combination of spectral filters and apertures reliably prevent interference effects.

ImageIR filter wheel replacement

Multispectral Feature

The multispectral feature makes it possible to record sequences with constantly changing spectral filters. Images are recorded synchronously with a rapidly rotating filter wheel equipped with the filters. It may be possible to switch between up to seven filters, depending on the version. Due to this the multispectral measurement can be optimised to suit the measuring task if the preset ranges are unsuitable. The integration times can be adapted within the limits calibrated for this filter.

Camera protective housing for infrared cameras by InfraTec

Wide Range of Protective Hous­ings

The InfraTec product range includes numerous protective housings. The all-weather and robust metal housings allow the use of the thermal cameras in harsh environments and protect against mechanical stress, dust and splash water. Depending on requirements, users can also choose ATEX-certified protective housings that can be used in potentially explosive atmospheres.

InfraTec Glossary Motorfocus

Motor Focus for ImageIR® Full Lenses – More Comfort

All interchangeable standard lens systems of the ImageIR® series can be combined with a motor focus unit, which is controlled by the camera operating software. It enables precise, remote and fast focusing. In addition, an autofocus function is available which operates reliably even with low image contrasts.

Thermal image during ignition of an airbag  Image Small

Window Mode (Subwin­dowing) – Capture of Rapid Sequences

The thermal imaging camera can be operated in full, half, quarter and sub mode. With the camera control software, it is possible to use the extended subwindowing function. Using click-and-drag, freely definable sections can be set up quickly and conveniently. A defined sub-frame of the detector is picked out to achieve these extremely high refresh rates.

InfraTec Service - thermography lenses

High‐performance Full Optics

High quality precision lenses allow the adaptation of the image geometry to almost every measuring situation. Its performance parameters are calibrated with respect to functionality, quality and flexible application. Due to proper IR-transparent lens materials and high-precision antireflexion coating, the lenses are optimised for different spectral ranges.

InfraTec thermography - Geometrical Resolution

Geomet­rical Resol­u­tion – Effi­cient Analysis of Complex Assem­blies

InfraTec's infrared cameras with cooled and uncooled detectors have native resolutions up to (1,920 × 1,536) IR pixels. Spatially high-resolution thermograms ensure that components and assemblies are imaged down to the smallest detail and thus defects can be reliably detected and precisely localised.

InfraTec thermography - Thermal resolution

Thermal Resol­u­tion – Determ­in­a­tion of Differ­ences of Only a Few Millikelvin

For detection of small temperature changes InfraTec's infrared cameras offer thermal resolutions up to < 15 mK in real-time operation. By using the Lock-in Thermography method it is possible to further increase this resolution significantly. For this purpose test objects are periodically excited and non-destructively examined for defects and irregularities.

MicroScan feature ImageIR

Micro­Scan – Quad­ruple the Image Format

Behind the function is a fast-rotating MicroScan wheel, which is integrated into the camera. It ensures that four different individual exposures are taken per wheel revolution, which are offset laterally by half a pixel each. In this way, thermography achieves a new quality due to thermal images providing a quadrupled spatial resolution.

Thermography with ImageIR series - HDR feature - Picture credits: © iStock.com / Vershinin M

HDR – Simultaneous Mapping of Wide Temperature Ranges

The High Dynamic Range (HDR) function of the Infrared ImageIR® camera series enables measurement scenarios with extremely different temperatures to be recorded continuously. When recording in HDR mode, multiple thermograms with different integration times and different filters are recorded quickly in succession and compiled into an overall image with a high dynamic range. The measuring range can span up to 1,500 K. Users obtain high-contrast images in a wide temperature range characterized by high measurement accuracy.

HighSense for thermographic camera series ImageIR®

High­Sense – Always the Optimal Camera Setting

Thanks to HighSense, ImageIR® users have the option of setting up individual measuring ranges based on the factory calibration that best suit the respective task. Depending on the measuring task, the required temperature range can be selected and the optimum integration time for this purpose is calculated – or one decides to proceed in reverse order. Thus, the calibration can be retained even in the case of changed integration times.

InfraTec Service Calibration Rig

Auto Calibration

The Auto Calibration option expands the HighSense function to include automatic, dynamic adaptation of the integration time. This ensures the utmost temperature measuring accuracy and an optimised signal-to-noise ratio throughout the process. The wellfill of a detector is usually optimal in certain areas of the dynamic range. If the measured object signal is outside theses or user-specified limits, the integration time is readjusted.

Thermografie-Kameraserie ImageIR® mit neuer 10 GigE-Schnittstelle

10 GigE Inter­face for a Strong Increase in Output

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet interface of the high-end camera series ImageIR® opens this extremely fast transmission standard with a NIC specially developed by InfraTec. This works with optical or electrical transceiver modules that are easy to change and are called SFP+.

InfraTec glossary - Rotating filter- und aperture wheel

Separate Filter & Aper­ture Wheel – Spec­tral Ther­mo­graphy

The combination of a separate filter and aperture wheel, allowing a total of 35 freely selectable combinations, is prerequisite for a universal application in measurement tasks with high object temperatures and in the field of spectral thermography. The neutral density filters used for signal attenuation or the combination of spectral filters and apertures reliably prevent interference effects.

ImageIR filter wheel replacement

Multispectral Feature

The multispectral feature makes it possible to record sequences with constantly changing spectral filters. Images are recorded synchronously with a rapidly rotating filter wheel equipped with the filters. It may be possible to switch between up to seven filters, depending on the version. Due to this the multispectral measurement can be optimised to suit the measuring task if the preset ranges are unsuitable. The integration times can be adapted within the limits calibrated for this filter.

Camera protective housing for infrared cameras by InfraTec

Wide Range of Protective Hous­ings

The InfraTec product range includes numerous protective housings. The all-weather and robust metal housings allow the use of the thermal cameras in harsh environments and protect against mechanical stress, dust and splash water. Depending on requirements, users can also choose ATEX-certified protective housings that can be used in potentially explosive atmospheres.

InfraTec Glossary Motorfocus

Motor Focus for ImageIR® Full Lenses – More Comfort

All interchangeable standard lens systems of the ImageIR® series can be combined with a motor focus unit, which is controlled by the camera operating software. It enables precise, remote and fast focusing. In addition, an autofocus function is available which operates reliably even with low image contrasts.

Thermal image during ignition of an airbag  Image Small

Window Mode (Subwin­dowing) – Capture of Rapid Sequences

The thermal imaging camera can be operated in full, half, quarter and sub mode. With the camera control software, it is possible to use the extended subwindowing function. Using click-and-drag, freely definable sections can be set up quickly and conveniently. A defined sub-frame of the detector is picked out to achieve these extremely high refresh rates.

InfraTec Service - thermography lenses

High‐performance Full Optics

High quality precision lenses allow the adaptation of the image geometry to almost every measuring situation. Its performance parameters are calibrated with respect to functionality, quality and flexible application. Due to proper IR-transparent lens materials and high-precision antireflexion coating, the lenses are optimised for different spectral ranges.

InfraTec thermography - Geometrical Resolution

Geomet­rical Resol­u­tion – Effi­cient Analysis of Complex Assem­blies

InfraTec's infrared cameras with cooled and uncooled detectors have native resolutions up to (1,920 × 1,536) IR pixels. Spatially high-resolution thermograms ensure that components and assemblies are imaged down to the smallest detail and thus defects can be reliably detected and precisely localised.

InfraTec thermography - Thermal resolution

Thermal Resol­u­tion – Determ­in­a­tion of Differ­ences of Only a Few Millikelvin

For detection of small temperature changes InfraTec's infrared cameras offer thermal resolutions up to < 15 mK in real-time operation. By using the Lock-in Thermography method it is possible to further increase this resolution significantly. For this purpose test objects are periodically excited and non-destructively examined for defects and irregularities.

Infrared Cameras for Envir­on­mental Studies

InfraTec Infrared camera
Zoom Cameras

ImageIR® 6300 Z

Image Format(640 x 512) IR-Pixel
Detector typeXBn

InfraTec Infrared camera
High-end Cameras

ImageIR® 8300 hs

Image Format(640 x 512) IR-Pixel
Detector typeT2SLS or InSb

InfraTec Infrared camera
Zoom Cameras

VarioCAM® HD Z

Image Format(1,024 x 768) IR-Pixel
Detector typeUncooled Microbolometer Focal Plane Array

InfraTec Infrared camera
High-end Cameras

ImageIR® 9400 hp

Image Format(2,560 x 2,048) IR-Pixel
Detector typeInSb

InfraTec Infrared camera
System Cameras

VarioCAM® HD head 900

Image Format(2,048 x 1,536) IR-Pixel
Detector typeUncooled Microbolometer Focal Plane Array

InfraTec Infrared camera
Compact Cameras

PIR uc 605

Image Format(640 x 480) IR-Pixel
Detector typeUncooled Microbolometer Focal Plane Array

InfraTec Infrared camera
High-end Cameras

ImageIR® 9500

Image Format(2,560 x 1,440) IR-Pixel
Detector typeMCT

InfraTec Infrared camera
Zoom Cameras

VarioCAM® HD Z security

Image Format(1,024 x 768) IR-Pixel
Detector typeUncooled Microbolometer Focal Plane Array

InfraTec Infrared camera
High-end Cameras

ImageIR® 9400

Image Format(2,560 x 2,048) IR-Pixel
Detector typeInSb

Asso­ci­ated Indus­tries & Applic­a­tions

high-speed thermography

High-Speed Ther­mo­graphy

Get even faster and analyze temperatures at highest process speeds.

microthermography

Micro-Ther­mo­graphy

Micro-thermography allows for the thermal analysis of smallest structures in the micrometer range, providing a detailed representation of the temperature distribution on complex electronic assemblies.

All branches and application areas