Applications & Uses
Military
Infrared photography is used by the military for a number of tasks. One of the military’s primary uses of infrared is for target acquisition. If a military helicopter flew over a target (such as a person or building) that had been camouflaged with dead foliage, on a normal video system the target would be hard to see. However, if the helicopter was equipped with infrared video, the natural landscape surrounding the target would reflect infrared light, showing up bright white on the monitor whereas the target would show up black, as dead foliage doesn’t reflect infrared light.
Infrared photography is also used to find illegal drug farms easily from the air. Often, marijuana plants are hidden within cornfields so that they are undetectable. However, color infrared imagery clearly shows the marijuana plants in a different color from the cornfields, making it easy to detect illegal drug growers.
