Polar Bears/FLIR

[Ratdog68]

Well today I was able to learn something (which I already suspected). Sunny day, 39F, no fog, no snow on the deck... FLIR did NOT "see" two different polar bears at a distance of approx. 150 yds.

BIG thermal contrast between the sand bar and the ocean, neither bear registered with "hot" as: black,white, or red.

Sorry, the unit does not record. Will be interesting to see what happens come winter.

 

[BigRedDog]

makes sense that they conserve ALL of their heat. but you would think that they would be different from one back ground or the other.

Which thermal were you using at the time?

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Keep in mind that the fur will hide a lot of the heat signature. If you look at birds such as turkeys, they often have a poor thermal signature as well.

Also keep in mind that given that what you are seeing is heat radiation, that to see two separate items, there must be a difference in the heat values. If the heat radiated by the bear's is close to being that of their surroundings or background, they will be effectively camo'd from thermal view. In other words, nothing registered as hot because all were close to the same temperature in terms of the amount of heat they were radiating.

 

[Hard_ware]

If you can adjust the min temp and max temp displayed you might see the difference.
The thermal groups temps into colors and the larger the temp range displayed the closer the temps are grouped together, not sure if this makes sense to you. Example if you have ten shades of grey and you have min 70 degrees and max 79 degrees then each degree will be a different shade of grey. The closer you set the range you want to display the better the thermal will work for you. That's why the ps series from flir have alot to be desired they could do so much more with user programming.

 

[DaveABQ]

Have to figure that polar bears have thick hair and hide to survive there.

Not sure why you didn't get out of your vehicle and get closer to see if you could see them then lol. Then of course we would never know either.

 

[EGarza04]

I used a hand held FLIR unit while doing my masters thesis. I got to use it looking for quail in the Davis Mountains. Brian is right, birds have such a small heat signature that the thermal was almost useless to find them. Their down feathers were too efficient at holding their body heat in. The tall grass in the mountains also made for a hard time finding anything that was shorter than the grass.

I don't remember which FLIR unit I was using, but it was big, like 1980s VHS camcorder big, and had a flip up screen (around 4") on the top of the unit for a viewer. It also had the option of plugging in a set of glasses that had video screens in them. We didn't have the glasses, but it seemed like an interesting concept.

 

[Ratdog68]

Only adjustment is the color of the "heat signature", and contrast settings. None of the changes made a difference on this hand held unit.

However, the thermal camera as part of the surveillance system was effective in picking up the bear this morning. Same distance of about 150 yds.

I still think UV imagery would be a better bet for polar bears. Their hollow hairs should absorb the UV light and cause them to glow with that technology.

This FLIR handheld unit is not a higher end offering. I detailed it in another thread here about a year ago.

http://www.lonestarboars.com/threads/edjumicate-me.953/

Oh, and guess what I woke up to this morning... snow on the ground !

 

[EGarza04]

Wow I can't even imagine snow right now. The past week has been highs from 100 to 103.

 

[Ratdog68]

Wow I can't even imagine snow right now. The past week has been highs from 100 to 103.

LOL... some boys got off the boat this morning (from Tx), all bundled up, with neck warmers, gloves... I'm in a long sleeve shirt (light one). Wanted to ask them what they're gonna do when it gets COLD.

 

[Hard_ware]

The TS series is for viewing and won't have the adjustments to set the min and max temps.

E Garza know's how hot it's been down here, got some rain last few days to cool things off to high 90's
But had wind out of the North which is very uncommon in summer, mostly South East wind off the gulf of mexico most of the time.

 

[rob072770]

LOL... some boys got off the boat this morning (from Tx), all bundled up, with neck warmers, gloves... I'm in a long sleeve shirt (light one). Wanted to ask them what they're gonna do when it gets COLD.

RD are you inside the Arctic circle?

 

[Ratdog68]

RD are you inside the Arctic circle?

Rob, I'm 150 miles east of Pt. Barrow, AK, and 3 1/2 miles off-shore, in the arctic ocean... on a man made 12 acre island.

"Sue" on the TV show "Life Below Zero" is about 150-200 miles ESE of where I am.

 

[rob072770]

Rob, I'm 150 miles east of Pt. Barrow, AK, and 3 1/2 miles off-shore, in the arctic ocean... on a man made 12 acre island.

"Sue" on the TV show "Life Below Zero" is about 150-200 miles ESE of where I am.

I watch her show all the time she is a hardy woman. One my my favorites is when she hunted the big bear to over come her fears. She is something.

 

[Ratdog68]

I watch her show all the time she is a hardy woman. One my my favorites is when she hunted the big bear to over come her fears. She is something.

Missed that episode, would be nice to catch a rerun.

 

[FrankT]

Sue is a piece of work, just really does not like people.

 

[EGarza04]

The TS series is for viewing and won't have the adjustments to set the min and max temps.

E Garza know's how hot it's been down here, got some rain last few days to cool things off to high 90's
But had wind out of the North which is very uncommon in summer, mostly South East wind off the gulf of mexico most of the time.

Yup we got all the wind and none of the rain. Still feels like 100+