On Aug. 9, 2020 NASA’s Aqua satellite imaged the Apple Fire near Big Bear Lake in California using its false-color bands in order to be able to distinguish burn scars from the surrounding area more easily. The combination of reflectance bands 7, 2, and 1 on the MODIS instrument are most useful for distinguishing burn scars from naturally low vegetation or bare soil and enhancing floods. The MODIS Corrected Reflectance imagery is available only as near real-time imagery. The imagery can be visualized in Worldview and the Global Imagery Browse Service (GIBS). This image was made using the Worldview Data site. Burned areas or fire-affected areas are characterized by deposits of charcoal and ash, removal of vegetation and/or the alteration of vegetation structure. When bare soil becomes exposed, the brightness in Band 1 may increase, but that may be offset by the presence of black carbon residue; the near infrared (Band 2) will become darker, and Band 7 becomes more reflective. When assigned to red in the image, Band 7 will show burn scars as deep or bright red, depending on the type of vegetation burned, the amount of residue, or the completeness of the burn.
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Source: Phys.org