In the Arctic summers they provide images of sea ice at a time of low thermal contrast. Land appears green to red. Snow is white. Cloud-free water appears blue. This shows the locations of cloud and haze which appear here as green to red streaks and are especially visible above the darker water, which is coloured as blue.
Land appears green to red, and white where snow lies on the coastal mountains.
The images are computed from the difference between the signals in bands 1 and 2. Band 1 shows the signal in red light, increased by suspended particles. Forming the difference reduces the signals due to haze, thin cloud or smoke, and sunglint, all of which cause an almost equal increase in the two bands. Suspended particles in water cause only a very small increase in band 2. Land shows a much higher signal in band 2 than 1, blackening it out in the difference images.