I saw one in action on a television cop show and it seems they can detect human body at 500 yards or more.  A guy was hiding in some bushes in a desert at night and his body stood out like a light.  

How can these thermal imaging systems be defeated?  I guess you can jump in a canal or some other water but what happens when there are no water available?

-find a manhole cover and go underground??

-crawl underneath a car that recently parked with its engine block still hot???

-go inside a building.

-mingle with a crowd during rush hour.

-get next to something really cold.

-go where aircraft cant go.

...can anybody add to this????

-only go out in the Arizona desert when the ground temperature is 98.6 degrees?

-just after sundown in the Arizona desert, the cactus are hotter than the surround terrain, so stand in the shape of a cactus and stand really still?

-shoot down the aircraft...oh wait...did I forget to mention that you'd need some Stinger missiles?

-detonate an nuclear device so the electromagnetic pulse would foul up (technical term) the electronics of the thermal imaging device

-run into the middle of a forest fire?

-hold up your sword and yell out "By the power of GreySkull!"

Basically thermal imaging is very accurate.  It can detect small differences in temperatures, the only way to hide is to either cover yourself sufficiently, or to be the exact same temperature as the surrounding terrain.

To cover yourself, it would have to be with something that's able to block your heat signiture very well, and the covering must look like it belongs there.  Even if you ran into a shed, the thermal imaging device can pick up slight heat traces leaving the small shed, or even see your "heat footsteps" where you warmed the ground as you walked into the shed.  Going into a bigger building, underground, in water...about the best you can do.  

Covering yourself head to toe with really thick neoprene may not give away your heat to the thermal imaging device if you didn't suffocate first, but the neoprene would absorb/reflect heat differently than the surrounding terrain, so they could still see you as a black figure instead of a bright figure on their screens.

To be the exact same temperature around you is not easy.  Even if the thermometer outside says 98.6, that's not the temperature of the surrounding terrain.  But it is true that in certain temperature ranges, people are a bit harder to pick out.

- Robbie

What is the maximum operating temp for a thermal instrument before it cannot *see anything* ?

Alex

Hide behind glass?

I kept waiting for some idiot to respond..."use a solar survival blanket".

Most of us know that the only real use for a survival blanket is to provide a nice shiny surface so the rescue people can find your frozen dead ass.

Thermal imagers are scary, as they are out of my price range and very nice at finding someone hiding in a ghili suit.  Hard to be "stealthy" with one of those around.

or try [b]Shazam![/b]

sgtar15

You could try covering yourself in mud like Arnold did in Predator. However, it might not work with domestic equipment.

Do they detect the heat from your body, or Infrared?  

Here are a few thoughts... they might be lame but I just thought them up in the last few mins...

How about using some sort of heat grenade and throw them around everywhere they are searching.  Some sort of device which throws out extreme heat temporarly.  Thermite maybe?

Another idea.  Design some sort of cold suit.  Something to keep in your temperature and on the outside be chilled.  It would have to cover 100% of your body.  

Hmm, got me thinking...  how about a scuba dry suit.  Aren't they designed to keep your body warmer than the outside water temperature?  Shouldn't that work both ways.  On land, keep your body cooler than the outside air?  Or at least mask the heat of your body.

Design some sort of EMP weapon to knock out the scanner.

[b]READ THIS[/b]:
[url]www.snipercountry.com/IRSniper.html[/url]
...follow links for more info...

Fatty, I regularly go "In-Country" from home, but I won't from work...thanks for the link.  I'll check it out later.

Have a lot of hostages!! [:D][:D]

I think that a good, I mean really good person to ask on this particular subject would be:

[size=4]Eric Robert [red]'The Olympic Bomber'[/red] Rudolph![/size=4]

I mean, the FBI and everbody's brother have been looking for him for years, now. They have used infared devices to try and detect him, but with no success!

Eric The(Unfortunately,He'sUnavailable]Hun[>]:)]  

Good idea, Garand Shooter, but please don't tell him [u]I[/u] wuz looking for him!

Eric The(Don'tWannaBeOn[u]Anybody's[/u]List)Hun[>]:)]

Stealth, here's the "idiot" you've been waiting for. Go to www.land-shark.com - go to 3rd page by going to bottom of home page and clicking "next page" and doing the same on 2nd page. Unit was tested with Flir,Inc. model 2000AB IR Detector mounted on helicopter and could not find the "rabbit". Soldier of Fortune tested it using a LifeFinder hand held IR detector and could not detect person using it either. SOF, I beleive, with Peter Kokalis give the most honest no BS gear reviews in the business. They say that after a knife, this is the most important item to carry in your kit.

[url]www.land-shark.com[/url] [:)]

I saw part of news report about some new clothing - it's supposed to helpyour body regulate temperature. Keeps you warm when it's cold and cools you when it's hot. They showed a jogger on a tredmill with thermal imaging and their chest was the color of the room. Unfortunately, I didn't get the name of the product.

Keep your thermostat set at 98.6' !! LOL


If you jumped in a river or swimming pool wouldn't you actually stand out becuase of the 20-30 degree contrast between your body temperature & the water temp. ???

OR would a hot tub work?  [:)]

This topic has been discussed before on this board... I seem to recall a comment that some Seals or Special Forces unit used some type of special neoprene wetsuit to insulate their bodies and heat signatures.  

The only problem with the suits was that they couldnt be worn for extended periods of time because they were so efficient at insulating the body that you could overheat and die from heat exhaustion?

M.

Well, a couple of ways:  just remember the thermal image sees the infrared emissions or reflections of a heat source, much in the way your eye sees the emitted or reflected light from a light bulb.  How do you hide a light bulb?  Not easy, and in the case of thermal camoflage:

1)  Assume room temperature and blend into the surroundings.  Unfortunately, this is, ah, self-defeating.

2)  Confuse the thermal image with large or multiple heat sources, say a forest fire or napalm strike.  My secretary watching me post this is muttering something having to do with thermonuclear fusion, but anyway, you get the idea.  If there are large or multiple heat sources, you may get lost in the background scatter.  Shoots the stealth approach all to hell.

3)  Burrowing or tunneling is very iffy; the newly turned earth will give a different heat signature than the surrounding earth.  Space blankets look like big, dark rectangles.

4)  "infrared camo"; multiple layers of materials having different emissivity values, like strips of tires, fabric, and foliage, preferably in a blind-type fashion.  Very hard to blend into surroundings.  Bulky.

5)  Stay behind intervening natural objects, as long as your heat signature doesn't reflect off objects near you and give your position away.  However, as soon as you pop around to get a peek or whatever the hell you're doing, you're exposed.

Frankly, there is no good way to defeat thermal imaging.  It seems to be as close to the perfect detection system as they come.

the shooter [sniper]