Red Mountains

[jan15]

Does anyone know anything about these deep red mountains in Chukot and Yakutia?

Are they really so red? That would be amazing. I'd like to see photographs of mountains like that.

And what makes them so red? Minerals, as in Arizona? (only these look like a much stronger red) Or maybe vegetation? In at least some of the locations the red seems to be associated with a certain altitude.

[jan15]

Oops! That was my first attempt at saving a kmz file, and I only saved one of ten sites that I found.

This version of the file actually has 10 red sites, not the same as the originals, since I lost them. Some of the 10 don't appear to be mountains.

[Felippo]

Are they really so red?


And what makes them so red?

No, its not a true color image, its a false color image. The image in your placemarker is showing near infrared data (light) as red.

Felippo :givebeer:

[SSSALVI]

Red because they are in Russia. ;)

An optical image will be truly accurate if it contains all the colour components. ( and of course as pointed out by Felippo there should be no additional enhanced components like IR which are not seen by human eye )

In order to make the image equivalent to true colours we should have colour bands with larger optical bandwidths so that all the colours are reproduced correctly.

But most of the satellite 'cameras' have narrower bands which are useful for computer processing without producing imageries. This type of data is useful to detect small variations in signature patterns but can misbehave for optical reproduction because it will lack some colour components which are lying in the gap between the two adjacent bands. ( e.g. even though all the crops appear green to the eye it is possible to differentiate various types of crops using their characteristic signatures with narrower bands )

All the ten marks appear to be land without trees ( e.g. Very high peaks neighbouring icy tops ) so it is quite possible that the computer has produced an accurate reproduction but which is not acceptable to human eye.

After all , there is no machine as flexible and complex as the human body.. every part of it.

Shashi