An image processing system comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; a processor disposed in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, upon execution of the instructions is configured to: receive an input image output by an imaging sensor, the image sensor being sensitive to thermal emissions; normalize the input image; apply a smoothing operation to the normalized image; apply a peak-to-peak filter to the smoothed, normalized image by sliding a moving window through the entire smoothed, normalized image and applying the peak-to-peak filter to content of the smoothed, normalized image at each location of the moving window to detect a warm target and generate a coarse, thermal outline formed of gray-level pixels of the warm target; and apply a threshold function to the coarse, thermal outline, the threshold function outputting a bounded outline; refine the bounded outline by applying at least one of a morphological thinning function and a morphological closing function; construct a color map for each of at least two color channels of a color scheme system, each color map being continuous and monotonic, the color map being constructed to highlight the warm target while deemphasizing other contents; and display separately or fused with one another the input image without the color map, the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline without the color map, and the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline with the color map a memory configured to store instructions; a processor disposed in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, upon execution of the instructions is configured to: receive an input image output by an imaging sensor, the image sensor being sensitive to thermal emissions; normalize the input image; apply a smoothing operation to the normalized image; apply a peak-to-peak filter to the smoothed, normalized image by sliding a moving window through the entire smoothed, normalized image and applying the peak-to-peak filter to content of the smoothed, normalized image at each location of the moving window to detect a warm target and generate a coarse, thermal outline formed of gray-level pixels of the warm target; and receive an input image output by an imaging sensor, the image sensor being sensitive to thermal emissions; normalize the input image; apply a smoothing operation to the normalized image; apply a peak-to-peak filter to the smoothed, normalized image by sliding a moving window through the entire smoothed, normalized image and applying the peak-to-peak filter to content of the smoothed, normalized image at each location of the moving window to detect a warm target and generate a coarse, thermal outline formed of gray-level pixels of the warm target; and apply a threshold function to the coarse, thermal outline, the threshold function outputting a bounded outline; refine the bounded outline by applying at least one of a morphological thinning function and a morphological closing function; construct a color map for each of at least two color channels of a color scheme system, each color map being continuous and monotonic, the color map being constructed to highlight the warm target while deemphasizing other contents; and display separately or fused with one another the input image without the color map, the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline without the color map, and the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline with the color map refine the bounded outline by applying at least one of a morphological thinning function and a morphological closing function; construct a color map for each of at least two color channels of a color scheme system, each color map being continuous and monotonic, the color map being constructed to highlight the warm target while deemphasizing other contents; and display separately or fused with one another the input image without the color map, the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline without the color map, and the warm target and thermal refined bounded outline with the color map