Patent ID: 7171328

Claim:
A method for estimating thermal properties using a single long-wave infrared thermal image, the method comprising: positioning a sensor to define a field of view of the sensor; generating an array of measured emitted irradiances utilizing a long-wave infrared thermal image generated by the sensor, each element of the array corresponding to one of a plurality of locations within the field of view, the plurality of locations comprising a material with a set of thermal properties and radiative properties; calculating an array of pixelated measured thermal parameters from the array of measured emitted irradiances; calculating using a heat-flow model an array of pixelated calculated thermal parameters corresponding to each of the plurality of locations, the heat-flow model using a digital elevation model, a solar illumination model, and a set of estimated thermal properties and estimated radiative properties; varying the set of estimated thermal properties and estimated radiative properties used for calculating the pixelated calculated thermal parameters to minimize an array of differences between the array of pixelated measured thermal parameters and the array of pixelated calculated thermal parameters; and generating a terrain map indicative of thermal and radiative properties of the material at the plurality of locations within the field of view using the set of estimated thermal and radiative properties that minimize the array of differences for each of the plurality of locations within the field of view.