Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with automatically optimizing cyclic integration are described. One method embodiment includes repetitively acquiring a thermal intensity data using an infrared detector configured to operate for an integration time. The method embodiment may also include extracting a useable data from the intensity data and then updating a rolling composite image with the useable data. The method may also include selectively automatically updating the integration time based on whether the thermal intensity data included a value that fell outside the pre-determined range.