### 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.

Primary Author: Nicholas M. Short, Sr. email: nmshort@ptd.net