Thermal Scope



The Thermal Scope is a weapon attachment in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. When aiming down the sight enemy soldiers show up in solid white and everything else in a gray scale. Because it sees body temperature the player using it can see enemy soldiers through smoke. The Thermal Scope can be used on Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, SMGs and LMGs. It is similar to the thermal sights on the AC-130, Chopper Gunner, and the Predator Missile. The Thermal Scope can be countered by the Cold-Blooded perk. The overall view through the sight is smaller than looking down a sniper scope and ACOG, but you can hold your breath like the sniper scope. This attachment also doesn't work well on snowy maps as the snow will show up white also. Best used if you fire your weapon in bursts while aiming down the sight.

Obtaining
The Thermal Scope can be unlocked for all Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, LMGs and SMGs in multiplayer. It is unlocked when you get 20 kills while looking down an ACOG sight.

Trivia

 * The thermal sight is unrealistic as heat detection does not affect it at all, all it does is put the world in grayscale and light up any part of a player model as white.
 * The crosshairs seem to be slightly inaccurate with a Sniper Rifle, as well as poor recoil representation through the scope, particularly for the Barrett .50cal.
 * When looking at snow through a thermal camera, the snow will appear white. This is actually accurate because of the way thermal optics work. Real thermal optics don't detect heat but rather specific wave lengths of radiation. The reason snow appears "hot" is because it is actually reflecting the sun's light/radiation off the snow causing a false heat signature. With the thermal optics it would be like looking at a reflection of the sun in a mirror, the mirror would appear "hot" even though its actually not.
 * In real life thermal scopes cannot see through glass. Glass is an insulator and doesn't allow the wavelength of radiation that thermal optics detect to pass through it. So players equipped with Riot Shields would not really show up on the scope. Strangely however non-piloted aircraft in multiplayer (Harrier, Attack Helicopter/Cobra and the Pave Low) cannot target players through glass. This is most noticeable in Terminal
 * When looking at an enemy equipped with a Riot Shield equipped through thermal sights, the riot shield also appears white hot because it is a part of the player model.
 * In reality, when looking through a thermal scope, equipment such as ballistic vests and spare mags would not glow white, but this feature was probably excluded from the game for ease of use.
 * The ability to steady the sights was obviously intended for sniper rifles, but you can still steady the sights when the Thermal Scope is attached to an Assault Rifle. Unfortunately, the effect only applies to the first shot, and the sights will become less accurate after the breath is released, much like a sniper scope. However, this can be useful when using the FAL in Hardcore since you can make accurate, long-distance, one-shot kills without having to use a sniper rifle.
 * When using a scoped weapon upon mounting a minigun you are able to hold breath, although it seems to have no effect on accuracy.
 * A PP2000 with a Thermal Scope can be found in The Only Easy Day...Was Yesterday, but this attachment is not usable online.
 * The single-player variant of the thermal scope varies in zoom depending on the weapon. The PP2000 has virtually no zoom, while a sniper rifle with a thermal scope has about as much zoom as the regular scope.
 * When the enemy sets off an EMP and you have a thermal scope on your weapon the red lines will still show but the rest of the scope will be as if looking down a normal sniper scope but slightly blurry.
 * Chickens do not light up white. The most likely reason chickens are not white hot is so the player doesn't think it's an enemy and fire at it, which would in turn give away their position (unless they have the Bling perk and a silencer attached).
 * The thermal scope is unrealistic in one way because if you kill somebody within a couple of seconds his body goes from white to black, whereas in real life the body would be white for a while because it still has heat left in it. However, if this feature were included in the game, many players would be shooting dead bodies.
 * Teammates will have a flashing strobe, similar to the ones used in Death From Above to mark teammates.
 * Cpl. Dunn is seen using this attachment extensively.
 * Flags being carried by players appear white hot.
 * Killstreak rewards don't appear to emit heat.