Thermal Imaging can it see into the ground????

Question

I understand thermal imaging and the use of it etc. but can thermal imaging see into the ground? and if so how deep?

Answer 1

Thermal imaging can’t see through dirt, but it will see the ground you have disturbed and the gas you are discharging. ...

Answer 2

the only way I've heard of seeing underground is using radar, It's sometimes used by archaeologists. Have a look at the link.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsit...

Answer 3

If the underground building is at a different temperature than the surrounding and overlying dirt then you might be able to pick up a temperature signature from the underground building.  Whether or not you can will depend on the thermal conductivity of the soil (dry soil conducts heat less well than moist soil), how well insulated the building is, the thermal contrast, and how deep the building is buried.  

Infrared remote sensing can be used to detect buried objects, there was an instance in the early days of IR imaging when a helicopter-mounted imager found a group of hikers in a snow cave on Mt Hood, Oregon (it was in the mid-80's).  

However, the IR imager is not seeing into the ground as such.  It is measuring a surface thermal signature of buried objects.  It can't give you an image of something underground.  So you could maybe tell something was buried somewhere, and maybe see a general outline, but you couldn't see how deep it was or much detail about it's structure in the vertical dimension.  Ground-penetrating radar or seismic techniques can provide (at least in a limited sense) images of buried objects.

Answer 4

It can't see too far down because mass absorbs heat waves, so the top soil will absorb any heat waves that are shot off by soil underneath.  However, if something is really hot under a foot of soil, it will warm the soil (by shooting heat waves at it), and the thermal imaging will see the hot patch of soil.

Heat waves act just like light waves, albeit with a different frequency and a different effect on human tissue.