In this band combination, vegetation shows up in a familiar green, but the savanna and bare ground show up in shades of purple. Different band combinations are often used to make images of the same scene because each band combination emphasizes different surface and atmospheric features. These two images can be stacked. Prominent hazes cover the Congo Basin. The volcanic plume north of Lake Kivu signals an eruption of the volcano Nyiragongo.
Vegetation appears in red.
This image shows the 1975 scene in the second set of bands. This is because band 4, which is shown in green, is farther out into the infrared part of the spectrum than the other bands, and thus penetrates more easily through any haze. These two images can be stacked. TM bands differ slightly from MSS bands. The image was taken in July 1989 and shows about the same region as the Political Map above.