Time Team and the RAF at Kemerton

A Tornado GR4A from 13 Squadron, RAF Marham in King's Lynn, using infrared sensors, overflew Time Team's excavation site on three days in September last year, at the end of official aerial reconnaissance sorties. The infrared camera that it carried underneath the cockpit can pick up differences in temperature on the ground – buried walls, ditches and other features are cooler than the soil surrounding them. Unfortunately, conditions (rain and then cloud) were not ideal to produce distinct variations and so the results were not as good as they might have been. However, the images do show a quite marked similarity to the cropmarks that led Time Team to the site in the first place.

Sorties 1 and 2

Fortunately, the RAF's infrared sensors have produced better results elsewhere.

Two infrared images of the partially excavated Chesters Roman fort by Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.

A Bronze-Age settlement in Devon. The picture on the left is a normal aerial photograph of the site, with an arrow showing where the settlement lies beneath the ground. The picture on the right is an infrared image of the same field, clearly showing the outline of the settlement.

These two images show a Roman fort in Devon, found by the RAF even though historians had stated that the Romans did not build such structures this far south.

The aircraft that flew the sorties over Kemerton was the Tornado GR4A. This looks just like the Tornado GR1A, pictured below.

Channel 4 Television would like to thank Sergeant Paul Stratford of 13 Squadron, RAF Marham for providing information and visuals.

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