The use of infrared thermographic and GPS topographic surveys to monitor spontaneous combustion of coal tips

Aerial infrared thermography is one of the methods most widely used for monitoring coal tips. Although it offers the advantage of providing wide coverage of the site and clearly displaying areas at risk on the thermal image, it is costly, sensitive to atmospheric conditions and cannot be used to monitor combustion reactions. It is for these reasons that the LAMTI, in liaison with the Charbonnages de France Group, has developed a ground-level method based on a combination of GPS topographic and infrared thermographic surveys that is intended to be more precise and less expensive and may eventually enable combustion reactions to be monitored.