Infrared Radiation

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Infrared Radiation

When you go outside on a sunny day, you can feel the heat from the sun

on your skin. The heat that you feel has traveled 150 million

kilometers from the sun through space by infrared radiation. Radiation

with frequencies below the red end of the spectrum is infrared.

Infrared is different to convection and conduction because it does not

require particles to transfer heat. There are no particles in between

the space between earth and the sun, but still the infrared radiation

can travel through it.

Every object on earth gives of infrared radiation, even cold objects.

Infrared cameras can be used to detect this. One of the amazing uses

of infrared detectors is tracking rockets. The camera would be linked

to an infrared detector, this can not only tell the direction from

which the radiation comes from, but also how the direction changes.

This information is then given to a computer which then processes it

and hence gives a production controlling the camera and the detector

so the rockets course is followed.

There are many types of detectors, one of them being the tracking

rocket detector, but there is also a detector which has military

applications. Living organisms and engines are at temperatures above

their surroundings, and they emit more infrared. Appropriate detectors

are able to uncover the presence of people or engines, even if they

are totally camouflaged, because of the infrared radiation, hence the

whereabouts of an enemy may be discovered.

A detector that is quite similar may also be used together with an

infrared source to enable one to see in the dark. The infrared

radiation gets reflected from different objects just like light, but

not in the same amount. Hence a device that can receive this radiation

and use it to produce a similar picture with light makes the scene

visible. This detector, has obvious uses, military wise, but can also

be used to observe animals at night, without causing a disturbance. An

example of using infrared for good is in the 1972 Olympic Games.

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