Blooming

Loss of the entire night vision image, parts of it, or small parts of it, due to intensifier tube overloading by a bright light source. Also, known as a “halo” effect, when the viewer sees a “halo” effect around visible light sources. When such a bright light source comes into the night vision device’s view, the entire night vision scene, or parts of it, become much brighter, “whiting out” objects within the field of view. Blooming is common in Generation 0 and 1 devices. The lights in the image to the right would be considered to be “blooming”.