a, head mounted high spec gen3 NV with weapon mounted aiming laser/designator.
b, the NV in combo of weapon mounted white light and a sighting option for quick shooting.
c, weapon mounted high spec gen3 nv sight
d, green headlamp and an activated white light on weapon with sighting option
The noise of reflected radiation in thick cover tends to compound with the higher humidity that those areas naturally have over open areas just a few yards away. NV is far more effective in thick areas in almost all conditions.
That is some interesting consideration, but pretty much the binary opposite to why most people use thermal.
A) Let's see, while Gen 3 is good, it loses considerable ability under tree canopy of thick areas and then you need to use a IR light and you have to deal with reflectivity issues. The laser designator will light up on every branch it touches and cause a bloom of reflected light. NV by itself just does not see well in the shadows at all.
B) White light will be reflected off of all vegetation in the foreground
C) Same as A
D) Same as B
One reason why police helicopters search with thermal now instead of white light or NV is because criminals and such can hide under vegetation from white light and NV quite readily.
The last sentence there is paticularly interesting because thermal does not typically seen "noise of
reflected radiation" in thick cover.
With the utmost respect, you are incorrect on several points. I hope it doesn't come across like I'm trying to be some gi joe big brain because it is absolutely not my intent.
heat radiates. that "radiation" travels in a straight line and is either absorbed or reflected off of surfaces it strikes. Thermal absolutely picks up that reflected heat in crowded environments depicted in the photos above as signal noise, and it especially effects the thermal's image quality if it's being used on ground level.
Thermal image from the ground on the top reference hog photo leaves the screen virtually whited out and the hog was barely visible from 30' with one of the top performing 640 core devices while the rear half of the carcass was entirely visible in clear detail with my pvs14.
From the air wasn't much better until I dropped to 30' AGL. At that elevation I turned on the white lights to get positive ID of the carcass and that is the screen shot depicted. On thermal at 100' AGL I could not make out most of the rocks to the left of the carcass but under white light at 30' you can see there is no canopy covering them. That is because of the noise caused from the reflected radiation. Again, that is the best 640 drone camera commercially available without buying it on an agency letterhead.
I understand the points you're making about NV and low light tactics are likely based on your previous use.
They may be accurate in the context of how you used them but they aren't necessarily truths across all use. There are a number of ways to keep the reflectance issues you alluded to down. Umbrella lighting under low (ceiling height) canopy, lower or focusable flood output, different wavelengths and on. Laser reflectance isn't much of an issue because you should only fire the laser when your'e getting ready to work the trigger and you should have an appropriate diode output for your task. IE, you don't need full power restricted lasers for this environment. Because one is unaware of the techniques or unequipped to perform them doesn't mean that the techniques aren't effective.
I can assure you that exactly zero professional end users are going into palm groves, deltas, or thickly shrubbed areas like the ones displayed in the pics above relying on ground based thermal imaging systems. They primarily will use i2 NV or low light patrol and engagement techniques at the ground level because they work better than thermal.
These techniques also work better than most thermal applications for hunting hogs in these environments as well. I've taken a number off them between 10-30' in this manner within the past few months just to test the utility of the technique in pressured areas since the start of rifle deer season. I also have used a cheap $40 amazon red laser pointer and white light but forgot to include that in my examples.
The comments you made about FLIR for aerial search aren't entirely accurate in my experience either. Rotary wing assets normally use FLIR hand in hand with i2 NV and often use all 3 search tools in combination for many of the same reasons I touched on above. Additionally the majority of the FLIR units being used across all aerial platforms are cooled units & the capabilities they have cannot reasonably be compared to anything we are buying off the web.