On the greyest and coldest day of the winter so far, I put on my warmest ‘Arctic’ clothing to start a new project.

We went out into the field to start a project I had been thinking about for a long time already: measuring microclimate with a thermal camera in a truly useful way.

The thermal camera had been great for illustrative purposes, as it gives beautifully coloured images that spark the imagination, like the one of this reindeer in Lapland (from my archives). However, its use in the field was limited by the difficulty to get long-term data from exactly the same spot, in such a way that it would stay comparable over time.

But now, with the help of a tripod to keep the camera (heavy stuff, I tell you) perpendicular to the ground, I can make movies of daily temperature shifts on whichever small scale I want.

This cold and grey December day in Belgium, with temperatures staying between – 1 and 1 °C, was in any case the most boring day ever to try this new device. The possibilities look highly promising for the future, however, so there are certainly reasons to celebrate!