There are several other commonly used false color images that are good for different purposes, three of which are listed here:
| Layer assignment - assign these layer numbers to the R,G,B channels | Appearance and uses |
| 7,4,2 | Better at penetrating atmospheric particles and smoke than natural color. Developed areas are light grays and blue-grays, vegetation is shades of browns, greens, and oranges. Good for distinguishing between wet and dry areas. |
| 4,5,3 | Clearly shows the edges between land and bodies of water. Different vegetation types (forests, grasslands, chaparral) are different shades of browns, greens, and oranges. |
| 5,4,1 | Similar to 7,4,2, but more useful for distinguishing different crop types in agricultural studies. |
Try out these three assignments, and see what they look like. You can re-visit the areas you were looking at for your color infrared image and see how they look now that you are using different invisible bands.
That's it for the second activity, but if you're done early...try out some other assignments, and see what they look like. Since we can't see bands 4, 5, or 7 it might be interesting to see what the world looks like with just those invisible bands.