Understanding Infrared Thermography Reading 7 Part 2 of 2.pdf

Temperature sensitivity is also called thermal resolution (≠ spatial resolution)
or noise equivalent temperature difference. It is the smallest temperature
change at the target surface that must be clearly sensed at the output of the
instrument. This is almost always closely associated with the cost of the
instrument, so unnecessarily fine temperature sensitivity should not be
specified.
An important rule to remember is that, for any given instrument, target
sensitivity will improve for hotter targets where there is more energy available
for the instrument to measure. We should specify temperature sensitivity,
therefore, at a particular target temperature, and this should be near the low
end of the range of interest. We might, for example, specify temperature
sensitivity to be 0.25°C at a target temperature of 25°C, and be confident that
the sensitivity of the instrument will be at least that for targets hotter than
25°C.
Keywords
Temperature sensitivity is also called thermal resolution or noise equivalent
temperature difference (NETD).
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang