The infrared target detection technology is one of the core technologies in infrared imaging system. It uses image processing algorithm to automatically detect objects in chaotic background and strong noise environment, and the performance of the algorithm is crucial to the operating distance and intelligent level of the infrared imaging system. In this paper, the gray relational image information is used to study the grayscale histogram property of gray correlation, construct the difference equation model, analyze the characteristics of the difference gray relational degree and realize the detection of small target of forest fire. This method has the characteristics of simple algorithm, high efficiency, good effect and strong self-adaptive ability. In this paper, the experiment takes the small target detection of forest fire as the research object to study the image detection problem under the complex background and complex target information structure, and it is of practical significance to study the adaptive detection problem of image small targets with various shapes, random distribution and non-obvious features.