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Best MSS Bands for Identifying Surface Features

Item	Category	Best Bands	Salient Characteristics
a.	Clear Water	7	Black tone in black and white and color.
b.	Silty Water	4,7	Dark in 7; bluish in color.
c.	Nonforested Coastal Wetlands	7	Dark gray tone between black water and light gray land; blocky pinks, reds, blues, blacks.
d.	Deciduous Forests	5,7	Very dark tone in 5, light in 7; dark red.
e.	Coniferous Forest	5,7	Mottled medium to dark gray in 7, very dark in 5; brownish-red and subdued tone in color,
f.	Defoliated Forest	5,7	Lighter tone in 5, darker in 7 and grayish to brownish-red in color, relative to normal vegetation.
g.	Mixed Forest	4,7	Combination of blotchy gray tones; mottled pinks, reds, and brownish-red.
h.	Grasslands (in growth)	5,7	Light tone in black and white; pinkish-red.
i.	Croplands and Pasture	5,7	Medium gray in 5, light in 7, pinkish to moderate red in color depending on growth stage.
j.	Moist Ground	7	Irregular darker gray tones (broad);darker colors.
k.	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.
1.	Faults and Fractures	5,7	Linear (straight to curved), often discontinuous; interrupts topography; sometimes vegetated.
m.	Sand and Beaches	4,5	Bright in all bands; white, bluish, to light buff.
n.	Stripped Land-Pits and Quarries	4,5	Similar to beaches – usually not near large water bodies; often mottled, depending on reclamation.
o.	Urban Areas: Commercial Industrial	5,7	Usually light toned in 5, dark in 7, mottled bluish-gray with whitish and reddish specks.
p.	Urban Areas: Residential	5,7	Mottled gray, with street patterns visible; pinkish to reddish.
q.	Transportation	5,7	Linear patterns, dirt and concrete roads light, in 5; asphalt dark in 7.