Technical aspects of optical fibre distributed temperature sensing

This paper describes the technology of the distributed temperature sensor (DTS) systems. Distributed sensing represents a powerful breakthrough in temperature measurement. Although the technology is sophisticated, the use of optical fibres as sensors is very simple and opens many areas of measurement which have hitherto been impossible to address. Fast, accurate, high resolution measurements are now practical. The DTS system is based on optical fibre technology which means that it can be used in a wide range of conditions including hazardous environments and EMI intensive areas such as cable monitoring