On Jan 23, 12:00*am, (Alan) wrote:
In article mpcehand writes:

On Jan 21, 6:16=A0pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
On Jan 21, 2:04=A0pm, bildan wrote:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/on...lephoto-lens-s....

Yes! It's always struck me that a little signal processing on the
shimmer you see in telephoto lenses might work to show thermals.
A bit of signal processing would also show birds, gliders, cornstalks,
cu development, and other stuff that the naked eye tends to miss.
Darn day job...

John Cochrane

* Hmmm. *I had a different idea of how a remote thermal finder might be made,
but no time to work on it, as it would take a bunch of effort to learn the
details of actual implementation to try it.

The idea of a remote thermal finder is already being worked on by a
very distinguished scientist who lives and fly's @ the best soaring
center on the planet earth.
My money is on him.

* Why would he be the one to do it? *If the soaring is so good there, he
probably has no trouble finding lift.

* My money would be on someone who flys in a marginal area, who needs
a thermal finder.

* * * * Alan

My guess (possibly wrong) is the biggest value of a remote thermal
detector, at least at first, will be sort of a short-range "thermal
centering aid". Knowing there is strong core 300 meters away is
"highly actionable" data. Cruising along while searching a 1 km wide
path will eliminate passing close by a strong thermal without knowing
about it. Knowing there is a thermal 10 km away is interesting but
it's a good bet it will dissipate before you can get there and chasing
after it may not be the best strategy.