NIGHT VISION PVS-14, IR question

[Krane]

Consider the following:

What you see on the picture is this, you are walking around a field at night, hunting or whateva, all of a sudden whole sky fills up with clouds, ambient light disappears, your night vision cannot make out much other than very hazy very noisy wood-lines. You whip out your 500mw or 1W IR laser, play with the beam focus, attach it to the back of your helmet, turn it on, and shine it at the clouds. The clouds being reflective and all, will reflect most of that IR if its not raining (water absorbs IR), and you will see in the dark once more.
Would it work? From what I've read, clouds are very reflective.





.

 

[CheeseHasLeafs]

So umm... what exactly are you trying to do here?
From the way I read it, you are trying to build an IR laser for $>100 which can project a spot onto the clouds visible in a 1km radius?

 

[Krane]

no, I am attempting to buy an IR laser that when shone at a cloud - the cloud will act like a spotlight, reflect and illuminate the area around me, I approximate at least one kilometer in radius around me.

I would use this in places with absolutely zero ambient light - that's when night vision starts struggling to amplify light that isnt there, it could be solved with this trick, im just not sure if it would work, I imagine id need at least 1W laser..

LZLK - Multi Safety 808nm 1W Focusable NIR Infrared Laser Pointer

will update my post so not to confuse people

 

[Cyparagon]

shine it at the clouds. The clouds being reflective and al

...water absorbs IR...

Are you aware that clouds are made of water?

 

[Leodahsan]

 

[NKO29]

It would be more efficient to just shine the IR in your field of view, as that's all you're going to see anyway?

 

[qavro]

It is well known that in a cloudy night the high performance tubes are having a great time in URBAN areas and their surroundings. Because the residual light is reflected back from the clouds. Never thought about IR though... Even if it works you are going to need:
a) one powerfull laser
b) a very low altitude clouding

 

[Krane]

"I has a question"
Are you aware that clouds are made of water?

Clouds are made of vapor
I read the whole IR light absorbency in a scientific paper trust me its true

It would be more efficient to just shine the IR in your field of view, as that's all you're going to see anyway?

well ir flashlight will be too bright, and might cause a burn in in my $4000+ tube, its film-less

It is well known that in a cloudy night the high performance tubes are having a great time in URBAN areas and their surroundings. Because the residual light is reflected back from the clouds. Never thought about IR though... Even if it works you are going to need:
a) one powerfull laser
b) a very low altitude clouding

of course in urban area you will see everything well, even without night vision, but i was speaking of being out in the field far away from urban light

a) i am willing to try it with 1W IR
b) yeah that could be a problem

 

[Cyparagon]

ir flashlight will be too brigh

...i am willing to try it with 1W IR...

Clouds are made of vapor

Wrong. Vapor is transparent. Besides, water vapor is water.

Straight from the wikipedia page: "a cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water"

 

[Krane]

yes water droplets, but not condensated water droplets, those absorb IR, cloud masses reflect IR, if it rains IR will not reach the cloud as well, most of it will be lost

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~vijay/Papers/Polarisation/hansen-pollack-70.pdf

 

[qavro]

krane you also missed my point about the urban area. you have interpreted like you wanted (you thought about lit areas where you can actually see from stret lights) not like i said it. i said urban areas AND surroundings and you assumed that you can see with your unaided eye. maybe your vision is better than mine. but after several nvd owned i can tell you that it can be very dark out there too. read again what residual light is. and second: you don't have to be defensive with people that give you their input once you asked for it. if you don't like it, just go for 1W laser and make your idea happen and ignore the rest of us. some of us just wanted to help.

just my 2 cents.

 

[Fiddy]

i shined my 1.7W 808nm laser into the clouds....it didnt spot light the area.

video of it under gen1 optics (not pointing at clouds)

 

[Krane]

krane you also missed my point about the urban area. you have interpreted like you wanted (you thought about lit areas where you can actually see from stret lights) not like i said it. i said urban areas AND surroundings and you assumed that you can see with your unaided eye. maybe your vision is better than mine. but after several nvd owned i can tell you that it can be very dark out there too. read again what residual light is. and second: you don't have to be defensive with people that give you their input once you asked for it. if you don't like it, just go for 1W laser and make your idea happen and ignore the rest of us. some of us just wanted to help.

just my 2 cents.

im not being defensive where did you get that from.
and no I interpenetrated it correctly, no street lights just urbal lit sky, and yes you can see very well with urbal lit sky and no street lights, I know this because I live in new york and when we had the hurricane and no electricity for a few days, I went outside with a flashlight, and to my surprise I could see everything well because the rest of the city had the electricity

in the city, unless whole city is plugged out of electricity there is hardly any need for nvd unless you are under a tree or in someones backyard

thats why i said field far from city, hunting trip

 

[Krane]

i shined my 1.7W 808nm laser into the clouds....it didnt spot light the area.

video of it under gen1 optics (not pointing at clouds)

PRETTY NEAT! so you shined at the clouds and it didnt? :/ what if you focus it better to make a spot and not a line?

 

[qavro]

ok, krane. living with a shrink might get your head screwed in time. my apologies for misunderstanding you.

i have access to a laser that reach over 40km (focused) on ideal weather.
i will try your theory next week, first time i will have a cloudy night, but i have no idea how far i can reach with it unfocused. more than i can see with my eyes for sure. the problem is that for one month i am not going out of the city (in rural dark places) so i have no idea if this test will be of any use to you.

 

[Krane]

tell your shrink not to be a shrink with you at home that can get annoying, my relative is like head of TSA of polish-ukrainian border he watches contraband and what not, and he is like a live lying detector, always questioning what everyone says lol

what laser? IR? visible laser like green should work even better, I think in urban if you go through clouds above you with the laser you should see signifficant flashing on the ground, if my theory is correct

whats the power of the laser?