No evidence to support the cutting-down, but I can personally confirm that FLIR doesn't see through foliage. Each pixel takes the temperature of the nearest sur

No evidence to support the cutting-down, but I can personally confirm that FLIR doesn't see through foliage. Each pixel takes the temperature of the nearest surface, which is a leaf, instead of whatever's behind it. In war footage sometimes you see FLIR imagers being used to find tanks hidden under brush and stuff, but this is because the tank has been there long enough for its engine residual warmth to heat up the cover material. And sometimes you can track a moving target through _very thin_ brush because there are gaps between the leaves, in this case it's like visually tracking someone wearing a bright color -- as soon as the cover is thick enough to not have gaps anymore, you lose them. So, I can't prove a chain of reasoning, but I can say that part of it at least fits with physical reality.