Best MSS Bands for Identifying Surface Features¶
Contents
Best MSS Bands for Identifying Surface Features¶
Item |
Category |
Best Bands |
Salient Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
Clear Water |
7 |
Black tone in black and white and color. |
|
Silty Water |
4,7 |
Dark in 7; bluish in color. |
|
Nonforested Coastal Wetlands |
7 |
Dark gray tone between black water and light gray land; blocky pinks, reds, blues, blacks. |
|
Deciduous Forests |
5,7 |
Very dark tone in 5, light in 7; dark red. |
|
Coniferous Forest |
5,7 |
Mottled medium to dark gray in 7, very dark in 5; brownish-red and subdued tone in color, |
|
Defoliated Forest |
5,7 |
Lighter tone in 5, darker in 7 and grayish to brownish-red in color, relative to normal vegetation. |
|
Mixed Forest |
4,7 |
Combination of blotchy gray tones; mottled pinks, reds, and brownish-red. |
|
Grasslands (in growth) |
5,7 |
Light tone in black and white; pinkish-red. |
|
Croplands and Pasture |
5,7 |
Medium gray in 5, light in 7, pinkish to moderate red in color depending on growth stage. |
|
Moist Ground |
7 |
Irregular darker gray tones (broad);darker colors. |
|
Soils-bare Rock-Fallow Fields |
4,5,7 |
Depends on surface composition and extent of vegetative cover. If barren or exposed, may be brighter in 4 and 5 than in 7, Red soils and red rock in shades of yellow; gray soil and rock dark bluish; rock outcrops associated with large land forms and structure. |
|
Faults and Fractures |
5,7 |
Linear (straight to curved), often discontinuous; interrupts topography; sometimes vegetated. |
|
Sand and Beaches |
4,5 |
Bright in all bands; white, bluish, to light buff. |
|
Stripped Land-Pits and Quarries |
4,5 |
Similar to beaches – usually not near large water bodies; often mottled, depending on reclamation. |
|
Urban Areas: Commercial Industrial |
5,7 |
Usually light toned in 5, dark in 7, mottled bluish-gray with whitish and reddish specks. |
|
Urban Areas: Residential |
5,7 |
Mottled gray, with street patterns visible; pinkish to reddish. |
|
Transportation |
5,7 |
Linear patterns, dirt and concrete roads light, in 5; asphalt dark in 7. |