Stephen,
> However, remote sensing can't "see" high temperatures through an opaque mass of debris. At wavelengths emitted by very hot objects, which are in the visible band, it can only read the *surface* temperature. Yes.... but... Here is a page with a tiny version of the same or a similar image (second one down the page). http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a091601hotspots My question is this: from the surface temperature which is indicated from space, which as you say is NOT the true peak temperature in the pool - but could that peak temp be computed backwards in time, since we know the days which have lapsed, and the approximate size of the pool, the approximate conductivity of the debris etc.and can plug in the other constants ?? Plus, since you can see from the color of the hot debris in the claw (first image) which has been shedding heat for hundreds of hours, all of these things can be input for a meaningul simulation (assuming that you have nothing to hide) ... and not an imaginary simulation which was limited by the NIST contract terms so as to be effectively meaningless... ... anyway if you are going to do a computer simulation, why not also simulate the original heat content of that debris on the day of the disaster. That would be doable, no?
