• Existence of thermal contrast
• Weather / climate conditions: images may be difficult to interpret if recorded over snow-covered areas, wet ground, frost or during high wind.
• Clouds influence measurements significantly.
• Images may be distorted due to aircraft roll.

Depth of investigation: Surface heat distribution, but also covered heat sources (e.g., smouldering) may be identifiable.

• Measured parameter: Infrared thermography measures the intensity of the emitted electromagnetic radiation of a body
• Data analysis: The measured signal may then be converted to temperature (emission coefficient / emissivity must be known)
• Interpretation: Infrared thermography: qualitative interpretation of relative thermal anomalies assuming that the measured signal (intensity of electromagnetic radiation) is correlated to the true temperature.

• Required additional information: Weather conditions, camera information (valuable wavelength, etc.), camera setup, flight parameter (for processing / interpretation)
• Related add-on information: Ground infrared thermography and ground temperature probing
• Independent additional information: Investigations on site / ground depending on field of applications

• Crew size: flight crew (normally 2 persons)
• Acquisition speed: several measurements per hour
• Processing: 1 - 2 days per measuring day
• Equipment rental costs: high

• Line spacing; survey area is divided up into parallel tracks. Tracks should partially overlap to allow for wind gusts, aircraft roll or positional errors
• Line direction
• Flight altitude or height above ground; flight altitude: depending on target size from several tens to several hundreds of m
• Tolerances for altitude and positional deviations
• Weather conditions

• Field notes (e.g., all activities, effective time schedule, present personnel)

• Map/ images (or profiles) of temperature distribution
• Interpretation