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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system to image three-dimensional (3-D) objects melting in flames. The method could offer a precise, safe and compact way to measure structures as they collapse in fires.

Optical range measurements, already used in manufacturing and other fields, may help overcome practical challenges posed by structural fires, which are too hot to measure with conventional electromechanical sensors mounted on buildings.

As described in Optica, the NIST demonstration used a commercial LADAR system to map distances to objects melting behind flames that produced varying amounts of soot. The experiment measured 3-D surfaces with a precision of 30 micrometers (millionths of a meter) or better from 2 meters away. This level of precision meets requirements for most structural fire research applications, according to the paper.

[...] LADAR offers several advantages as a tool for imaging through flames. The technique is very sensitive and is able to image objects even when small amounts of soot are present in the flames. The method also works at a distance, from far enough away that the equipment is safe from the intense heat of a fire. In addition, the instrument can be compact and portable, relying on fiber optics and simple photodetectors.

[...] The researchers successfully applied LADAR to measure and map 3-D "point clouds"—points are the "voxels" constituting an image—even in a turbulent fire environment with strong signal scattering and distortion. For comparison, the team also made videos of the chocolate as it melted and images of a more complex plastic skeleton.

[...] The initial experiments were conducted with flames just 50 millimeters wide on lab burners at the University of Colorado Boulder. The preliminary results suggest that the LADAR technique could be applied to larger objects and fires. The NIST team now plans to scale up the experiment, first to make 3-D images of objects through flames about 1 meter wide and, if that works, to make quantitative observations of larger structural fires.

Original Submission