Spatial Temperature Changes Research Articles

Temperature profile during endourological laser activation: introducing the thermal safety distance concept.

To examine temporal-spatial distribution of heat generated upon laser activation in a bench model of renal calyx. To establish reference values for a safety distance between the laser fiber and healthy tissue during laser lithotripsy. We developed an in-vitro experimental setup employing a glass pipette and laser activation under various intra-operative parameters, such as power and presence of irrigation. A thermal camera was used to monitor both temporal and spatial temperature changes during uninterrupted 60-second laser activation. We computed the thermal dose according to Sapareto and Dewey's formula at different distances from the laser fiber tip, in order to determine a safety distance. A positive correlation was observed between average power and the highest recorded temperature (Spearman's coefficient 0.94, p < 0.001). Irrigation was found to reduce the highest recorded temperature, with a maximum average reduction of 9.4°C at 40W (p = 0.002). A positive correlation existed between average power and safety distance values (Spearman's coefficient 0.86, p = 0.001). A thermal dose indicative of tissue damage was observed at 20W without irrigation (safety distance 0.93±0.11mm). While at 40W, irrigation led to slight reduction in mean safety distance (4.47±0.85 vs. 5.22±0.09mm, p = 0.08). Laser settings with an average power greater than 10W deliver a thermal dose indicative of tissue damage, which increases with higher average power values. According to safety distance values from this study, a maximum of 10W should be used in the ureter, and a maximum of 20W should be used in kidney in presence of irrigation.

Spatio-Temporal Variations of Climate Variables and Extreme Indices over the Aral Sea Basin during 1960 - 2017

The Aral Sea plays a key role in the socio-economic development of Central Asia. In the past few decades, with the combined effects of global warming and human activities, the ecological environment of the Aral Sea has undergone significant changes, such as the reduction of the basin area and the drop in water levels. In this study uses the observed climate data, combined with remote sensing to systematically analyze the characteristics of changes in climate in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB). We used linear regression, Pearson's correlation and Pettit's test to determine climate change. The main conclusions are as follows. Based on the analysis of the temporal and spatial changes of temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration in the Aral Sea Basin from 1960 to 2017, it was found that the annual average temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration increased by 0.32 ℃ decade-1, 0.16 mm decade-1, and 0.04 mm day-1 decade-1, respectively. In addition, the changes of these climatic variables were different in the growing season (April - September) and the non-growing season (October - March). Temperature and potential evapotranspiration increased in both growing and non-growing seasons; however, the precipitation decreased (increased) in the growing (non-growing) season. This means that the climate in the growing season showed a warming and drying trend. HIGHLIGHTS In this study, we present the complex and detailed analysis that we performed by combining temporal and spatial changes in key climate parameters temperature, precipitation and potential evapotranspiration and change of climate extreme indices in the entire Aral Sea Basin and its sub-regions. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Local Perspectives on Climate Change, Its Impact and Adaptation: A Case Study from the Westfjords Region of Iceland

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation and more weather extremes pose risks to local societies worldwide. Yet, climate change is most often presented and reported on a global or national scale. This paper aims to analyze the key aspects of climate change on the local scale by assessing temporal and spatial changes in temperature and precipitation in the Westfjords in north-western Iceland and evaluate their impacts on the region’s livability. Existing temperature and precipitation data were used to model trends in climate change at an unprecedented resolution. The results show that the period of 2001–2020 was warmer than the 1961–1990 reference period in almost every month of every year, and that warming was more pronounced in the winter months. Furthermore, precipitation increased during 1991–2020 period compared to 1961–1990. These detected local patterns confirm some of the major predictions about climate change on the global scale. Considering the impact of climate change at the local level is critical, as it allows the community to envisage their future and provides better possibilities to mitigate, prepare for or adapt to the predicted changes.

Application of liquid crystal thermography for temperature measurement of the absorber plate of solar air heater

Thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) have indeed been utilized effectively in quasi heat transport and fluid dynamic research in recent years. Researchers in the areas of heat transfer and flow circulation have long used TLCs to map surface and spatial temperature changes. Before TLCs can be utilized for quantitative temperature measurements, they must first be calibrated to determine their color–temperature relationship. The goal of this article is to provide new and intermediate TLC users with an overview of the fundamentals and difficulties of TLC calibrations, with a focus on surface thermography. The first part of the article provides a comprehensive overview of thermochromic liquid crystals and the liquid crystal thermography technique. The final part of this paper concludes with a description of how liquid crystal thermography, both steady and transient, may be used to study heat transfer in turbulent flows. In the present article, Surface temperature TTLC is evaluated with the color response of TLC sheets and thermodynamic properties can be further calculated with the thermal relationship provided. The Imaging, colorimetry, lighting, and expected measurement error are all important elements of TLC calibration are discussed in this article.

Numerical and experimental analysis of heat and moisture transfer of Lavandula x allardii leaves during non-isothermal convective drying

In the present work, an experimental and numerical study is performed for describing the unsteady heat and moisture transport occurring in Lavandula x allardii leaves during non-isothermal drying, for time-varying temperature profiles. Drying experiments were conducted in a laboratory-scale convective dryer for an initial temperature level of 40 °C, ramping up to 60 °C at different temperature advancing rates under a constant airflow velocity of 2 m/s. A simultaneous heat and mass transfer model under a nonconjugated approach is proposed for leafy products, considering conduction and liquid diffusion among the inner layers of leaves. A computational algorithm was developed to predict the temporal and spatial changes of temperature and moisture during processing. Numerical results were validated with the experimental dehydration curves. The proposed modeling approach was found adequately fast and accurate for simulating the non-isothermal drying process of herbal leaves and can be further utilized for product-specialized dryer design, control or process optimization. • Non-isothermal drying regimes are applied on Lavandula x allardii leaves. • Effects of linear drying temperature increase on drying kinetics, are evaluated. • A simultaneous heat and mass transfer model is used to study the drying process. • Temporal and spatial changes of leaves' temperature and moisture are predicted. • Numerical results were in a good agreement with experimental dehydration curves.

Predicting catastrophic temperature changes based on past events via a CNN-LSTM regression mechanism

The modelling and prediction of extreme temperature changes in enclosed compartments is a domain with applications ranging from residential fire alarms, industrial temperature sensors to search and rescue personnel safety systems. The spread of fire in enclosed compartments is a highly uncertain and nonlinear process. Hence, in safety-critical cases, any false negatives pose a serious threat to the safety of individuals such as firefighters that are engaged in rescue activities. This work aims to model the nonlinear fire spread behaviour as a temporal, deep learning-based regressive methodology. The objective is to efficiently identify abrupt and extreme temperature changes that often result in increases of 300+ °C. A major challenge in such time-series models is that of learning from historic time-series samples which are known to suffer from high noise levels, outliers and data imbalance. This work contributes on the development of a convolutional neural network (CNN)-long short-term memory (LSTM) methodology to handle temperature data originating from body-mounted and fixed sensors and develop a temperature increase warning mechanism. The main contribution exploits the contextualisation ability of CNN-LSTM to predict temperature changes in windows of 5–120 s. The model identifies the spatial temperature change patterns via a CNN encoder, which are then fed into an LSTM network. This regression mechanism is trained and validated against a set of unique fire spread conditions and involved live tests ranging from containers to residential and industrial units. The model’s performance was evaluated with MAPE sensitivity analysis against data originating from body-mounted sensors and third-party NIST datasets. The outcome showed an error ranging from 0.89 to 2.05% to 5.46% and 6.23%, respectively. The model efficacy was also evaluated against a range of input–output temperature ranges from 5, 30 to 120-s windows and showed a FN rate of 2.15% for pre-alarm-to-normal and 3.11% for alarm-to-pre-alarm cases in body-mounted sensors and a higher FN rate of 5.14% reported for pre-alarm-to-normal case for the raised platfor sensor tests.

Monitoring Land Surface Temperature Change with Landsat Images during Dry Seasons in Bac Binh, Vietnam

Global warming-induced climate change evolved to be one of the most important research topics in Earth System Sciences, where remote sensing-based methods have shown great potential for detecting spatial temperature changes. This study utilized a time series of Landsat images to investigate the Land Surface Temperature (LST) of dry seasons between 1989 and 2019 in the Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province, Vietnam. Our study aims to monitor LST change, and its relationship to land-cover change during the last 30 years. The results for the study area show that the share of Green Vegetation coverage has decreased rapidly for the dry season in recent years. The area covered by vegetation shrank between 1989 and 2019 by 29.44%. Our findings show that the LST increase and decrease trend is clearly related to the change of the main land-cover classes, namely Bare Land and Green Vegetation. For the same period, we find an average increase of absolute mean LST of 0.03 °C per year for over thirty years across all land-cover classes. For the dry season in 2005, the LST was extraordinarily high and the area with a LST exceeding 40 °C covered 64.10% of the total area. We expect that methodological approach and the findings can be applied to study change in LST, land-cover, and can contribute to climate change monitoring and forecasting of impacts in comparable regions.

Parametric investigations of magnetic nanoparticles hyperthermia in ferrofluid using finite element analysis

Recently, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) based hyperthermia therapy has gained much attention due to its therapeutic potential in biomedical applications. This necessitates the development of numerical models that can reliably predict the temporal and spatial changes of temperature during the therapy. The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive numerical model for quantitatively estimating temperature distribution in the ferrofluid system. The reliability of the numerical model was validated by comparative analysis of temperature distribution between experimental measurements and numerical analysis based on finite element method. Our analysis showed that appropriate incorporation of the heat effects of electromagnetic energy dissipation as well as thermal radiation from the ferrofluid system to the surrounding in the modeling resulted in the estimation of temperature distribution that is in close agreement with the experimental results. In summary, our developed numerical model is useful to evaluate the thermal behavior of the ferrofluid system during the process of magnetic fluid hyperthermia.

System performance and economic assessment of a thermal energy storage based air-conditioning unit for transport applications

Traditional air conditioning (AC) faces low energy efficiency and thermal comfort challenges. This study explores the integration of thermal energy storage (TES) containing a phase change material (PCM) with a conventional AC unit (PCM-AC) to meet the challenge. A PCM based TES device was designed and fabricated and an experimental system was established. Comparisons are made between AC and PCM-AC scenarios in terms of spatial temperature changes at the initial transient stage, spatial temperature fluctuations at the steady-state operations, relative humidity, coefficient of performance (COP), energy savings, and emergency ventilation/cooling. A developed model was used to simulate the room temperature fluctuations with and without PCM under the Matlab Simulink environment. The experimental results showed that, compared with the AC, the testing space temperature fluctuation of the PCM-AC was reduced significantly to ∼2.56 °C (compared with 4.31 °C for the AC case); the ON-OFF frequency of the compressor of the PCM-AC was reduced by 27%; the overall COP was increased by 19.05%; and the emergency ventilation/cooling time was prolonged by almost 9 times. The results also showed the potential of the use of PCM-AC to significantly narrow down the relative humidity fluctuations and hence the potential for enhancing the thermal comfort. The simulation results agree well with the experimental data. The economic analysis showed that the electrical cost of the PCM-AC could be reduced by ∼17.82%, leading to a payback period between 1.83 and 3.3 depending on the grade the PCM used and the scale of operations.

Which is the response of soils in the Vojvodina Region (Serbia) to climate change using regional climate simulations under the SRES-A1B?

Climate change has different manifestations in various regions all over the world. Such changes strongly affect ecosystem services, environmental and agricultural stability. Soils play a crucial role in the complex system that generates climate change. However, the nature and structure of response of different soils to climate change is still distant to be interpreted. Bearing in mind that climate simulations can help us to comprehend soil balance in the future, we defined the purpose of this study: to project temporal and spatial changes of temperature and moisture in four different soils under A1B scenario for the periods 2021–2050 and 2071–2100 with respect to the period 1961–1990. For this analysis climate data obtained by the ECHAM5 model simulations, dynamically downscaled by the coupled regional climate model EBU-POM (Eta Belgrade University-Princeton Ocean Model), were used. The 43 sites in Vojvodina region (Serbia) were analyzed for pedological parameters and climate elements. The projected changes at the end of 21st century (2071–2100) can be summarized as follows: (i) increase in the mean annual soil temperature up to 3.5°C in the surface layer 0–10cm and up to 1.8°C in average for 0–200cm depth and decrease in the mean soil moisture up to 0.039kgkg−1 in the subsurface layer 40–100cm and up to 0.019kgkg−1 in average for 0–200cm depth, which corresponds to decrease of 16% and 7%, respectively; (ii) Chernozerms proved to be more sensitive to temperature increase in contrast to water affected soils (Fluvisols, Gleysols and Vertisols) that showed the lowest susceptibility; (iii) Chernozems also showed higher sensitivity to moisture loss than Cambisols, Arenosols and Umbrisols that showed the lowest susceptibility; and (iv) it was assumed that predicted changes in soil temperature and moisture will cause significant changes in soil respiration, release of CO2, soil processes, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Fault Reactivation Can Generate Hydraulic Short Circuits in Underground Coal Gasification—New Insights from Regional-Scale Thermo-Mechanical 3D Modeling

Underground coal gasification (UCG) has the potential to increase worldwide coal reserves by utilization of coal deposits not mineable by conventional methods. This involves combusting coal in situ to produce a synthesis gas, applicable for electricity generation and chemical feedstock production. Three-dimensional (3D) thermo-mechanical models already significantly contribute to UCG design by process optimization and mitigation of the environmental footprint. We developed the first 3D UCG model based on real structural geological data to investigate the impacts of using isothermal and non-isothermal simulations, two different pillar widths and four varying regional stress regimes on the spatial changes in temperature and permeability, ground surface subsidence and fault reactivation. Our simulation results demonstrate that non-isothermal processes have to be considered in these assessments due to thermally-induced stresses. Furthermore, we demonstrate that permeability increase is limited to the close reactor vicinity, although the presence of previously undetected faults can introduce formation of hydraulic short circuits between single UCG channels over large distances. This requires particular consideration of potentially present sub-seismic faults in the exploration and site selection stages, since the required pillar widths may be easily underestimated in presence of faults with different orientations with respect to the regional stress regime.

The Andes Cordillera. Part II: Rio Olivares Basin snow conditions (1979–2014), central Chile

ABSTRACTSnow cover extent, duration, and properties were simulated (1979/1980–2013/2014) for the Rio Olivares Basin (548 km2) in central Chilean Andes, in an effort to understand conditions and trends (linear) at a basin scale. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications products, together with the snow modelling software package SnowModel allowed simulations of first‐order atmospheric forcings (mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and water‐equivalent precipitation) and terrestrial snow features (snow cover extent, duration, snow water‐equivalent depth, snow density, and runoff generated from snow melt). Simulated snow cover extent and depletion curves were verified against Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer‐derived snow cover data. For the Rio Olivares Basin, MAAT was −2.9 ± 0.6 °C with a mean 0° isotherm at 3325 m a.s.l. The greatest temporal and spatial changes in temperature over the 35‐year period occurred in January and at the highest elevations, respectively. Mean annual precipitation was 1.86 ± 0.60 m w.e., indicating an increase in precipitation of ∼0.1 m w.e. 100 m−1 increase in elevation. On average, ∼90% of the basin precipitation fell as snow, varying from 70% at ∼2600 m a.s.l., to 95% at ∼4200 m a.s.l. In 20 out of 35 years the snow cover extent went to 0% (no basin snow cover) by end‐of‐summer (during March), and the snow duration increased on average by ∼10 days 100 m−1 increase in elevation. Approximately 85% of the basin outlet freshwater runoff originated from snowmelt, making snowmelt a dominant contributor to water resources. Snowmelt‐derived basin runoff was dominated by variability in snow precipitation rather than by variability in MAAT.

North Atlantic Subtropical Underwater and Its Year-to-Year Variability in Annual Subduction Rate during the Argo Period

AbstractSubtropical underwater (STUW) and its year-to-year variability in annual subduction rate are investigated using recently available Argo data in the North Atlantic. For the period of observation (2002–14), the mean annual subduction rate of the STUW is 7.3 ± 1.2 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) within the density range between 25.0 and 26.0 kg m−3. Once subducted, the STUW spreads in the subtropical gyre as a vertical salinity maximum. In the mean, the spatial changes in temperature and salinity of the STUW tend to compensate each other, and the density of the water mass remains rather stable near 25.5 kg m−3 in the southwestern part of the subtropical gyre. The annual subduction rate of the STUW varies from year to year, and most of this variability is due to lateral induction, which in turn is directly linked to the variability of the winter mixed layer depth. Through modulation of surface buoyancy, wind anomalies associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation are primarily responsible for this variability. Sea surface salinity anomalies in the formation region of the STUW are conveyed into the thermocline, but their westward propagation cannot be detected by the present data.

Temporal and spatial variability of temperature and precipitation over East Africa from 1951 to 2010

This study presents temporal and spatial changes in temperature and precipitation over East Africa (EA) from 1951 to 2010. The study utilized monthly Climate Research Unit (CRU) rainfall and temperature datasets, and Global Precipitation Climate Centre (GPCC) rainfall datasets. Sequential Mann–Kendall test statistic was used for trend analysis. The CRU data performs better than GPCC data in reproducing EA annual rainfall cycle. Overall decrease and increase in rainfall and temperature trends were observed, respectively, with the reduction in the March–May rainfall being significant. The highest rate of change in annual rainfall was experienced in the 1960s at −21.76 mm/year. Although there has been increase in temperature from the late 1960s to date, sudden change in its trend change happened in 1994. The increase in temperature reached a significant level in the year 1992. The highest warming rate of 0.05 °C/year was observed in the 1990s. The highest drying rate was recorded in the 1960s at −21.76 mm/year. There was an observed change in rainfall trend in the year 1953 and about four times in 1980, although the changes are insignificant throughout the study period except for 1963 when a positive significant change occurred at 5 % significance level. The highest amount of rainfall was recorded in the 1960s. Generally, positive rainfall and temperature anomalies are observed over the northern sector of the study area and opposite conditions are noted in the southern sector. The results of this study provide a reliable basis for future climate monitoring, as well as investigating extreme weather phenomena in EA.

Simulation of carbonaceous aerosols over the Third Pole and adjacent regions: distribution, transportation, deposition, and climatic effects

Carbonaceous aerosols including black carbon and organic carbon over the Third Pole regions are simulated using a regional climate model (RegCM4.3) coupled with a chemistry–aerosol module. Results show that the model can simulate well the climatology of the Third Pole region in monsoon and non-monsoon seasons, but the model shows a cold bias and an overestimation of precipitation over the Himalayas and the northern Tibetan Plateau. The model also performs reasonably well in terms of aerosol optical depth and near surface aerosol concentration when compared with satellite datasets and in situ observations. BC wet deposition in monsoon seasons is more (less) than that in non-monsoon seasons in the southern (northwestern) parts of the Third Pole region. Westerly winds prevail throughout the year and transport carbonaceous particles from central Asia to the northern Tibetan Plateau. In the monsoon period, aerosols can cross the Himalayas and can be transported to high altitudes by the southwesterly winds over South Asia. Dry deposition shows a topography-controlled distribution, with low fluxes within and high fluxes outside of the Tibetan Plateau. Mixed carbonaceous aerosols produce positive shortwave radiative forcing in the atmosphere and negative forcing at the surface. Shortwave forcing is with less magnitude over the Third Pole region. Longwave radiation forcing is negative over the Pamir Plateau and positive over the Tibetan Plateau during monsoon season. In non-monsoon season, longwave radiative forcing is negative in the Himalayas and southern parts of the Tibetan Plateau. Aerosols increase surface air temperatures by 0.1–0.5 °C over the Tibetan Plateau and decrease temperatures in South Asia during the monsoon season. In the non-monsoon period, temperatures decrease by 0.1–0.5 °C over the southern Tibetan Plateau. Spatial changes in temperature are consistent with the distribution of longwave radiative forcing, which indicates that aerosols’ longwave radiative forcing probably plays an important role in the climatic impact of aerosols over the Third Pole region.

&lt;italic&gt;In Vivo&lt;/italic&gt; Ultrasound Thermography in Presence of Temperature Heterogeneity and Natural Motions

Real-time ultrasound thermography has been recently demonstrated on commercially available diagnostic imaging probes. In vitro experimental results demonstrate high sensitivity to small, localized temperature changes induced by subtherapeutic focused ultrasound. Most of the published results, however, are based on a thermally induced echo strain model that assumes infinitesimal change in temperature between imaging frames. Under this assumption, the echo strain is computed using a low-pass axial differentiator, which is implemented by a finite-impulse response digital filter. In this paper, we introduce a new model for temperature estimation, which employs a recursive axial filter that acts as a spatial differentiator-integrator of echo shifts. The filter is derived from first principles and it accounts for a nonuniform temperature baseline, when computing the spatial temperature change between two frames. This is a major difference from the previously proposed infinitesimal echo strain filter ( δ-ESF) approach. We show that the new approach can be implemented by a first-order infinite-impulse response digital filter with depth-dependent spatial frequency response. Experimental results in vitro demonstrate the advantages over the δ-ESF approach in terms of suppressing the spatial variations in the estimated temperature without resorting to ad hoc low-pass filtering of echo strains. The performance of the new recursive echo strain filter (RESF) is also illustrated using echo data obtained during subtherapeutic localized heating in the hind limb of Copenhagen rat in vivo. In addition to the RESF, we have used an adaptive spatial filter to remove motion and deformation artifacts during real-time data collection. The adaptive filtering algorithm is described and comparisons with uncompensated estimated spatio-temporal temperature profiles are given. The results demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo ultrasound thermography with high sensitivity and specificity.

Temporal and spatial changes of temperature and precipitation in Hexi Corridor during 1955–2011

This study is focused on the northwestern part of Gansu Province, namely the Hexi Corridor. The aim is to address the question of whether any trend in the annual and monthly series of temperature and precipitation during the period 1955–2011 appears at the scale of this region. The temperature and precipitation variation and abrupt change were examined by means of linear regression, five-year moving average, non-parameter Mann-Kendall test, accumulated variance analysis and Pettitt test method. Conclusions provide evidence of warming and wetting across the Hexi Corridor. The mean annual temperature in Hexi Corridor increased significantly in recent 57 years, and the increasing rate was 0.27°C/10a. The abrupt change phenomenon of the annual temperature was detected mainly in 1986. The seasonal average temperature in this region exhibited an evident upward trend and the uptrend rate for the standard value of winter temperature indicated the largerst of four seasons. The annual precipitation in the Hexi Corridor area displayed an obviously increasing trend and the uptrend rate was 3.95 mm/10a. However, the annual precipitation in each basin of the Hexi Corridor area did not passed the significance test. The rainy season precipitation fluctuating as same as the annual one presented insignificant uptrend. No consistent abrupt change was detected in precipitation in this study area, but the rainy season precipitation abrupt change was mainly observed in 1968.

Analysis of Thermal-Infrared Abnormity on Jiashi Earthquake in Xinjiang

Land surface temperatures during Jiashi earthquakes,Xinjiang have been retrieved from NOAA/AVHRR imagery around Jiashi,Xin Jiang province(36°~43°N、73°～85°E) by using "split window" algorithm.Then,they are combined with geology conformation characteristics to analyze the Jiashi earthquakes from February 24 to April,2003.Time series analysis method is employed to analyze the changes before and after the earthquakes,which is a new attempt for thermalinfrared abnormal information mining.Temporal and spatial temperature changes are analyzed and results may be helpful for earthquake abnormal precursor detection.

Entropy generation of droplet motion with surface tension hysteresis in a closed microchannel

A transient heat transfer and entropy analysis is conducted to investigate the processes of thermocapillary droplet motion in closed microchannels. Both theoretical predictions and experimental data are presented for time-dependent temperature changes during the droplet acceleration. This paper develops a predictive model of the entropy production due to thermal and fluid irreversibilities in the microchannel. Thermocapillary, pressure and friction forces are modelled within the droplet, as well as surface tension hysteresis during start-up of the droplet motion. The spatial temperature change in the axial direction is measured experimentally, as well as the displacement of the droplet over time. The variation of the entropy generation number is reported for open and closed channels. Close agreement is obtained between the predicted and experimental data. The results show that water droplets have lower thermal and fluid irreversibilities than toluene and mineral oil.

Macro camera temperature logger array for deep‐sea hydrothermal vent and benthic studies

Long‐term observations of faunal communities are essential to identify biological and ecological key phenomena. Observational studies of deep sea habitats such as hydrothermal vents, however, have been restricted by technological limitations. Here we describe our recently developed instrument SMOKE (Submersible Macrophotography Observation Kamera Equipment) that was used for time‐lapse macrophotography synchronized with temperature readings for up to 28 h at 2200 m depth. Lighting was provided by a novel low‐cost white LED array powered by AA or AAA batteries embedded in epoxy within an aluminum case. SMOKE was successfully deployed at the Juan de Fuca ridge in the Northeast Pacific and delivered fine‐resolution pictures as well as centimeter‐scale temperature readings in diffuse vent flow habitats of small motile invertebrates. We found high spatial temperature changes within faunal assemblages and could identify and track specimens down to a size of 2 mm. SMOKE is also characterized by low fabrication and maintenance costs and a straight‐forward, reliable design. Overall, this device proved to be a valuable tool for macrofaunal observations linked with temperature changes over extended time periods.