Smoke plume from fuel depot fire near London, England - related image preview

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Smoke plume from fuel depot fire near London, England - related image preview

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Smoke plume from fuel depot fire near London, England - related image preview

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Smoke plume from fuel depot fire near London, England

A series of images shows a giant plume of smoke from a burning fuel depot near London, England. The first image, seen when you open this page, is a “true color” composite. If you place your mouse over the image, it will shift to a “false color” composite image; move the mouse to the side of the image and it will revert back to the first image. In this case, the false color composite is comprised of the bands 7 (short wave infrared), 2 (near infrared), and 1 (red), which are assigned to the red, green, and blue colors, respectively. This combination is often used to identify the effects of fire; if vegetation burns, bare soil in the area will become exposed. This will cause reflectance in band 1 to slightly increases (however, that may be offset by the presence of black carbon residue). The near infrared (Band 2) will become darker, and Band 7 becomes more reflective. When assigned to red in the image, Band 7 will show burn scars as deep or bright red, depending on the type of vegetation burned, the amount of residue, or the completeness of the burn.


Jeff Schmaltz

Published January 5, 2005
Data acquired December 11, 2005

Source:
Aqua > MODIS
Collections:
MODIS Image of the Day
Visible Earth