Thermographic Dog

A thermographic camera creates images based on infrared radiation.

In this thermographic photograph of a dog, why are the eyes and mouth yellow?

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech


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The rest of the dog's body does not radiate heat A dog's eyes and mouth are the hottest parts of its body The eyes and mouth are not insulated by fur and therefore radiate more heat The eyes and mouth are wet, which disrupts the camera's infrared detection

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5 solutions

Ram Mohith
Sep 18, 2018

Animals like dogs, bears, etc which live in cold countries have a special protective layer on their body. The have a special fluffy like mesh on their body which is known as fur . This fur has many hair and in-between them there are many gaps. These gaps are filled up with air. As you know that air is a bad conductor of heat it will prevent heat from escaping out of the body . Hence the heat generated inside the body will not radiate out into the atmosphere. In this way these animals save themselves from bitter cold climate. But some parts of the body of the dog like mouth, eyes and ears are not covered by this fur . So, there is no obstruction for the heat to radiate out. Hence, heat is lost through these parts and hence in this thermographic photograph of a dog the eyes and mouth are yellow (as yellow indicate a temperature around 32. 2 C 32.2^\circ C ).


Regarding the comments made by users regarding nose :

An infrared camera detects infrared radiation. For the eyes and mouth to appear yellow as they do in this image, they must be radiating more heat. "The eyes and mouth are not insulated by fur and therefore radiate more heat," is true. If the eyes and mouth were concealed by fur, they would indeed radiate less heat. This is because fur acts an insulator which prevents heat loss. It is also true however, that the nose is not insulated by fur, and yet it is very dark. Dog noses are complicated. Here are some factors that can influence the temperature of a dog's nose. 1. Dogs keep their nose wet by licking it. This promotes heat loss by conduction and evaporation (note: not infrared which would be picked up in a thermographic photo), keeping it colder and thus at a lower temperature; 2. A dog's nose has reduced blood flow. The further the tip of the snout is from the body, the colder it will tend to be.

Ram, air does does allow heat to escape. Air merely slows down the process of losing heat

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

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I think "prevent" word would be better.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 8 months ago

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Yes! I think it is better!

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

Penguins do not have fur, they have feathers.

Marta Reece - 2 years, 8 months ago

i wont ask >>> when i see person in picture like this picture thats men >>> he is dog

Patience Patience - 2 years, 8 months ago

I dispute this answer. The nose is also not covered by fur yet it is very dark Why is the nose dark? Because it is wet and thus cooled to below ambient temperature Fur insulated, so the temperature of the outside visible part of the fur is closer to ambient temperature, while the inside skin facing part of the fur is closer to the dogs body temperature The correct answer is that the eyes and mouth are the warmest visible part of the dog.

Steve Hauser - 2 years, 8 months ago

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Hi Steve,

An infrared camera detects infrared radiation. For the eyes and mouth to appear yellow as they do in this image, they must be radiating more heat. "The eyes and mouth are not insulated by fur and therefore radiate more heat," is true. If the eyes and mouth were concealed by fur, they would indeed radiate less heat. This is because fur acts an insulator which prevents heat loss.

It is also true however, that the nose is not insulated by fur, and yet it is very dark. Dog noses are complicated. Here are some factors that can influence the temperature of a dog's nose. 1. Dogs keep their nose wet by licking it. This promotes heat loss by conduction and evaporation (note: not infrared which would be picked up in a thermographic photo), keeping it colder and thus at a lower temperature; 2. A dog's nose has reduced blood flow. The further the tip of the snout is from the body, the colder it will tend to be.

Danielle Scarano Staff - 2 years, 8 months ago

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So the temperature legend on the right, relating color to temperature, is wrong?

Georgy Duloc - 2 years, 8 months ago

I also dispute this answer, because of the nose. Of the possible answers 2 is the most correct

David Norman - 2 years, 8 months ago

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An infrared camera detects infrared radiation. For the eyes and mouth to appear yellow as they do in this image, they must be radiating more heat. "The eyes and mouth are not insulated by fur and therefore radiate more heat," is true. If the eyes and mouth were concealed by fur, they would indeed radiate less heat. This is because fur acts an insulator which prevents heat loss.

It is also true however, that the nose is not insulated by fur, and yet it is very dark. Dog noses are complicated. Here are some factors that can influence the temperature of a dog's nose. 1. Dogs keep their nose wet by licking it. This promotes heat loss by conduction and evaporation (note: not infrared which would be picked up in a thermographic photo), keeping it colder and thus at a lower temperature; 2. A dog's nose has reduced blood flow. The further the tip of the snout is from the body, the colder it will tend to be.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 8 months ago
Marta Reece
Sep 29, 2018

All of the dog's body radiates heat, as internal temperature of the different parts is similar. The parts covered by insulating fur radiate less of this heat out, since the outside surface of the fur, that is the part visible to the camera, is at a much lower temperature. This is because the air trapped between the individual hairs does not conduct heat, unlike the wetness of eyes and mouth.

A person's head acts as a heat radiator.

Jesse Otis - 2 years, 8 months ago

If you’ve ever worn a jacket, you know that the fur helps insulate the heat. The same applies with the dog’s fur: the heat is trapped inside the dog with the fur (or else it’d be a pupsicle), so the thermal imaging wont detect as much heat as with the uninsulated parts like the mouth

Well 1 is clearly false, everything is radiating heat. 2 well the mouth is open so empty, if it's the hottest it's because the heat coming from somewhere else. 3 makes sense. 4 sounds plausible but the mouth would be at times be just air coming in. So 3

Meneghin Mauro
Oct 3, 2018

Second and third options are a bit tricky. The camera does't detect heat but temperature, however it's outside the fur so I wouldn't call that body temperature difference but something like external temperature. This difference is caused indeed by the insulation of the fur

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