At 07:40 AM 18/04/2012, you wrote:
I suspected the same. But I saw a thermal sensing system at Oshkosh
in 1996 where the inventor claimed that he had to detune the setup
as it could sense thermals (using thermocouples on the wing tips and
tail) beyond glide range of a glider.
This could be this invention.
PeterS
There's no problem detecting infrared radiation. The problem is
filtering what you see.
I've got a little contactless IR thermometer I bought for about $45
some years ago. It detects the sky and clouds quite nicely and if you
point it at a wall it tells you the temperature of the wall's
surface. Good for checking for heat leakage in insulation. I use it
to check the temperature of the teflon frying pan surface we use to
set the epoxy that holds down the components on our circuit boards
before soldering.
I really should fly it and point it at the ground to see which bits
are warmer than others. At low altitude a system like that could scan
the ground ahead and steer you towards the warmer areas.
Satellites can and do use sensing of microwaves from an oxygen
isotope to get atmospheric temperature information. This isn't infra
red though and I don't know how large/heavy and power intensive the
sensors are. Yeah, there's the link to Climate science.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring
instrumentation since 1978
www.borgeltinstruments.com
tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784
P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia
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