Thermal Pattern and Thermal Tracking: fingerprints of an environmental illicit

Being able to identify crime/guilty relationship is central to police investigation and new technologies enable authorities to do this faster and more accurately than ever before. In recent years, our research team has introduced the use of a range of aerial platforms and an innovative application of thermography to detect several illegal activities; for example illegal sanitary sewer and storm-drain connections, illicit discharges and other “anomalies” on the surface waters can be easily identified using their thermal infrared signatures. This paper introduces first results of a Thermal Pattern and Thermal Tracking approach, that can be used to identify different phenomena and several pollutants.