Would an infrared sensor be able to distinguish dog feces from grass that has been heated by the sun all day?

I realize this sounds crazy, but it's for a project that I'm doing. Feces put out a large amount of methane gas, which has a different spectral signature than carbon dioxide ... but I don't know if it would be distinguishable by an infrared sensor ... any thoughts?

Answer:
Most people would immediately think of temperature when you ask this. An IR sensor tuned in to the maximum intensity wavelength peak of methane would be able to locate the poop. there are strong peaks at around 3020 and 1310 cm^-1 for methane, maybe using them both would help. try looking it up here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/methane_(da...
Not necessarily. Remember that grass will likely be just below ambient temperature - if the feces is fresh, it will likely have a different temperature than the air around it.

If it's been out there a while and had time to dry, it will be at ambient.
infrared depends on temperature ... "fresh" poop would be different from the "sun-absorbing reflecting - transpiring alive grass"

what ever the state, dark poop would probably absorb more solar radiation as heat than would grass.

"get an infrared sensor and try it" .. ?

My vote is "yes"
Fresh dog poop - yes. (water would be absorbing a greater amount of heat from the sun than the leaves in the grass, and the feces itself would have a higher starting temperature, which would cool rapidly as the water is lost)

Dried - no. (when the water is gone, the dried material will be heated no more than the ambient surrounding, so no)

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