MISR Views Southern Florida

These MISR nadir-camera images of southern Florida were acquired on October 18, 2000 (Terra orbit 4446). The view on the left includes Daytona Beach near the top and the Florida Keys at the bottom. Orlando appears as a grayish patch near the top of the image, just to the east of the greenish Lake Apopka, Florida's fourth largest and most polluted lake. On the coast is Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center.

The large body of water in the middle of the land area is Lake Okeechobee. On the western (Gulf of Mexico) coast, Charlotte Harbor and Fort Myers are visible. Along the eastern (Atlantic) coast, partially obscured by clouds, are Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Further to the east, the shallow waters and reefs of the Little Bahama and Great Bahama Banks appear in striking blue and green colors.

The two righthand images show the Florida Everglades and the Keys in more detail. Like the lefthand view, the top image is a natural color composite of blue, green, and red band imagery. On the bottom is a false color composite comprised of green, red, and near-infrared data. Near-infrared light is invisible to the human eye. The high reflectance of plants in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, displayed here in shades of red, is the basis of many satellite-based techniques for detecting and characterizing land surface vegetation.