Coastguard Canterbury Night Vision Goggles Fundraiser

With increasing search & rescue operations, it has become important to develop more technology equipment to help find people safely and quicker as time is of the essence in search and rescue operations. Thermal imaging equipment is becoming widely used in search and rescue operations.

Whilst Canterbury Rescue (Our Rescue Vessel) used older FLIR Technology after 9 years of being mounted on the roof facing all the sea and weather conditions recent maintenance costs exceed the price of purchasing up-to-date technology Thermal Imaging Goggles.

Thermal imaging equipment is being used in search and rescue operations for a number of reasons. Thermal Cameras can read temperature measurement very easily and display temperature readings as an image or video to users. This is particularly useful when the search and rescue teams can no longer see in darkness at night time or have low visibility.

Sea rescue operations are one of the search and rescue missions that would benefit greatly from the use of thermal imaging equipment. The reason for this is due to thermal imaging cameras working from heat/temperature measurement which is radiated from everything and everyone. With sea rescue operations, the sea temperatures help people to be found easier because of the difference between sea and human temperature. If we look at the average sea temperatures for Christchurch they can range from 8.6 °C to 18.2 °C. While the average human temperature is 37°C. Even a difference of 7 degrees from 30°C to 37°C could create a big difference using thermal imaging.