These images of Canadas Québec province were acquired by the Multi-angle
Imaging SpectroRadiometer on March 4, 2001. The regions forests are a mixture
of coniferous and hardwood trees, and sugar-shack festivities are held at this
time of year to celebrate the beginning of maple syrup production. The large
river visible in the images is the northeast-flowing St. Lawrence. The city of
Montréal is located near the lower left corner, and Québec City, at the upper
right, is near the mouth of the partially ice-covered St. Lawrence Seaway.
Both spectral and angular information are retrieved for every scene observed by
MISR. The left-hand image was acquired by the instruments vertical-viewing
(nadir) camera, and is a false-color spectral composite from the near-infrared,
red, and blue bands. The right-hand image is a false-color angular composite
using red band data from the 60-degree backward-viewing, nadir, and 60-degree
forward-viewing cameras. In each case, the individual channels of data are
displayed as red, green, and blue, respectively.
Much of the ground remains covered or partially covered with snow. Vegetation
appears red in the left-hand image because of its high near-infrared brightness.
In the multi-angle composite, vegetated areas appear in shades of green because
they are brighter at nadir, possibly as a result of an underlying blanket of
snow which is more visible from this direction. Enhanced forward scatter from
the smooth water surface results in bluer hues, whereas urban areas look
somewhat orange, possibly due to the effect of vertical structures which
preferentially backscatter sunlight.
The data cover an area measuring 275 kilometers x 310 kilometers.
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.