Investigating Freezing Patterns in Plants Using Infrared Thermography.

Since the discovery of infrared radiation in 1800, the improvement of technology to detect and image infrared (IR) has led to numerous breakthroughs in several scientific fields of study. The principle that heat is released when water freezes and the ability to image this release of heat using IR thermography (IRT) has allowed an unprecedented understanding of freezing in plants. Since the first published report of the use of IRT to study freezing in plants, numerous informative discoveries have been reported. Examples include barriers to freezing, specific sites of ice nucleation, direction and speed of ice propagation, specific structures that supercool, and temperatures at which they finally freeze. These and other observations underscore the significance of this important technology on plant research.