Abstract：Detection on rock impaction with thermal infrared(TIR) imaging is not only a creative and prospective application of remote sensing technology，but also one of the important contents of the new inter-discipline called remote sensing rock mechanics(RSRM). The experimental technology of TIR imaging on rock impaction is analyzed；and the experimental exploration results at the early stage as well as recent research achievements are introduced. The main experiments conducted include the experimental exploratory to TIR imaging for detecting the transient process of solid impact，projectile impaction on rock by a Hopkinson compression bar(at different impacting angle or with water in rock body)，free-fall impaction between rocks，free-ball impaction on different types of rocks. Based on the results from the above experiments，two kinds of application foundations are researched，i.e. the back analysis of the impact-related quantities of rock impaction and the analysis of the possibilities for the disasters induced by rock impaction in mining area. It is shown that (1) the impact-related quantities can be back analyzed quantitatively/qualitatively by the TIR detection；for example，the impacting velocity or impacting energy can be back analyzed quantitatively；and the accuracy of the back analysis lies on the homogeneity of rocks，and the errors of back analysis based on the impaction on homogeneous marble are less than 12%；and (2) the increment of temperature due to rock impaction could probably ignite the gas in coal mine，therefore，it can be helpful to the analysis or the remote detecting/forecasting of disasters that may be induced by rock impaction. The mechanisms of the TIR radiation temperature variation due to rock impaction are discussed，including the rock fracturing，rock thermo-elastic effect and rock physics. It is pointed out that the future research directions include the radiation laws and physical mechanism，the quantitative analysis and remote sensing model，and the spectrum optimization and practical technology.
