INFRARED imagery

Seeing the world from a thermal perspective

Infrared imagery offers a unique opportunity to see biophysical properties in real time. We can watch organisms heat up, cool down, and generally transfer heat back and forth throughout their environment. In the TrEnCh Project, we use infrared imagery to help people see the world from a thermal perspective because we believe it’s an intuitive first step to understanding microclimate and the impacts of warming.

More about using IR cameras for education here.
More about using IR cameras for thermal biology research here and here.

Scroll down to learn how you can participate ▼

What infrared images are telling us →

#1: Real-time data on thermal conditions

Infrared images show us heat in an environment. Warmer colors, like orange, yellow, and red, indicate higher temperatures. Cooler colors, like green and blue, indicate cooler temperatures.

#2: Insight into thermal processes

Thermal images help us ask and answer questions about heat transfer in an environment. We can watch organisms gain and lose heat, providing insight into the thermal processes underlying the patterns we see.

#3: Implications of warming

Finally, infrared images help us see when temperatures exceed what an organism can tolerate. We can watch body temperatures rise and notice when they reach a critical threshold. This helps us identify concerns for conservation.

TrEnCh-IR: processing and storing InfraRed imagery

FLIR cameras often produce images in a non-standard format (radiometric jpgs) and analyzing the images requires purchasing expensive FLIR software. We’re developing a web service to convert IR images into standard image formats (like jpegs and pngs) and store the images for research, education, and outreach.

Our goal is to empower more people to view the world from a thermal perspective.

Bringing infrared imagery to Instagram

As part of the project, we share infrared cameras that attach to smartphones, to encourage project members to explore the thermal conditions of their own environment. Let us know if you’d be interested in participating!

Ant mound at the elevation of 4100 ft at 9 am. Metabolic heat and the well-insulated thatched keep them warm in the morning. #flirone #thermalecology

With temperatures in the 90s, both waterfowl and humans seek relief from the heat of the day in the shade trees provide.

This fern is managing to stay cool in a glacial riverbed despite the rocks around it heating up in the sun. #mountbaker #pnwhiking #thermalecology #flironepro

Surprised that Easton Glacier on #mountbaker looks so cold (blue) at a distance in this thermal image from the Railroad Grade trail. Snowpack was definitely warming up on a sunny afternoon. A beautiful hike. #thermalecology #flironepro #pnwhiking #pn

follow us on insta @trenchproject for images exploring the thermal complexities of everyday life.

Guidelines for our Instagram account:

We want to highlight the thermal complexities of nature. Examples include landscapes with variation in sun and shade or different types of surfaces. Animals and plants showing thermal variability or seen in thermally variable landscapes are perfect. Objects and people are okay too, if aligned with the goal of helping students and the public understand why temperatures vary and how that might influence thermal stress and sensitivity to climate change. Any style and length of caption is fine. For education purposes, it’s best to describe the thermal variation and why it occurs.

How to get your images featured on our account:

We create most of our images using an inexpensive FLIR ONE camera attached to a smart phone. The camera’s hybrid visual IR images can facilitate interpretation over traditional IR cameras. FLIR ONEs are also easier to carry around than a traditional IR camera. However, images from any IR camera are welcome.

To have your IR image featured on our Instagram account, tag us in your photo @TrEnChProject. We welcome images that can be paired with IR images to aid interpretation.

Please get in touch with us if you have images you’d like to contribute or if you’d like to borrow an IR camera to take images to share with the account. If you’d like to contribute, you can upload to TrEnCh-IR, post directly to the Instagram account, or we’ll provide a Google Drive folder for you to upload your images to, so we can post on your behalf.