A thermal camera is simply one that sees infrared radiation. Everything emits some form of light, hotter things emit higher energy forms of light, for instance a hot iron rod will glow red because it is hot enough to emit visible light.
Most warm blooded animals are hot enough to emit infrared radiation. All these forms of radiation behave as the same principle, just as visible light reflects off surfaces so does infrared.
The fact that its purple likely is because water doesn’t reflect everything, some goes into the water itself and the way the camera works is that less radiation means more dark colors like purple.
Latest Answers