Methods and Systems for Characterization of an Anomaly Using Infrared Flash Thermography

A method for characterizing an anomaly in a material comprises (a) extracting contrast data; (b) measuring a contrast evolution; (c) filtering the contrast evolution; (d) measuring a peak amplitude of the contrast evolution; (d) determining a diameter and a depth of the anomaly, and (e) repeating the step of determining the diameter and the depth of the anomaly until a change in the estimate of the depth is less than a set value. The step of determining the diameter and the depth of the anomaly comprises estimating the depth using a diameter constant C.sub.D equal to one for the first iteration of determining the diameter and the depth; estimating the diameter; and comparing the estimate of the depth of the anomaly after each iteration of estimating to the prior estimate of the depth to calculate the change in the estimate of the depth of the anomaly.