Revealed Warmth

At an open house that she hosted in the WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD) Laboratory, scientist Claudia Cenedese invited visitors to have their portrait taken with a thermal-imaging camera, which records infrared (IR) radiation. The warmer an object, the more IR it emits, and the recorded colors are related to temperature, with white, red, and orange warmer than blue and green. Cenedese, who studies ocean currents, used the IR camera to visualize surface water temperatures in experiments in laboratory tanks. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)