1. The benefits of thermal imaging

Like light intensification (LI), but unlike active imaging (which requires illumination by IR beacon or laser), thermal imaging is an entirely passive, and therefore unobtrusive, technique. Seeing at night without lighting up is one of the major technological advances made in weapons technology over the last three decades.

The technique of thermal imaging involves obtaining, by day or night, a visible representation of the specific radiation of animate beings and objects, due to their difference in temperature or emissivity. It is the thermal contrast between these bodies and their environment that is detected and visualized.

Since the images obtained now have a visual quality comparable to that of television, and the thermal sensitivity of cameras is much better than 1/10 degree (and close to 1/100 degree for the new generation), it is...