Area-extensive infrared countermeasures will be necessary to defeat these new seekers. One effective component of these countermeasures will be infrared airborne obscurants, particles, essentially removing the original target from the imager's field. The experimental studies concern with investigating the thermal screening potentials of some mineral dusts, which are commercially available and unhazardous. The smoke was generated pneumatically within a designed smoke tunnel equipped with means for measuring the surrounding meteorological parameters such as the ambient temperature, and relative humidity. The thermal obscuring potential of the smoke cloud was thermally tested by using a thermal camera attached to a video recorder and a data processing system. The effect of the smoke cloud on the attenuation of the infrared radiation emitted from a selected target was recorded, analyzed and explained. The experimental results indicate the capability of experimentally studying the potential of various mineral dusts as infrared obscurants