False color facts for kids

False-color image of Las Vegas. Grassland, and vegetation appears in red.

False color (or false colour) refers to a group of color methods used to display recorded images in color. A false-color image is an image which shows an object in colors different from that which a true-colour photograph would show.

In addition, there is false color used for visualization of genuine data.

A photograph shot in color will show the colors in the picture as they appeared on the film, or to the sensor of a digital camera. This is known as true-color image. In a false color image, the color shown in the image does not correspond to the one the film or sensor recorded. In such an image, which is known as false color image, color is used for extra information.

Examples where color is used to give more information

This image shows compositional variations of the Moon overlaid as pseudo color.

A grayscale MRI of a knee – different gray levels indicate different tissue types, requiring a trained eye.

A pseudocolor MRI of a knee created using three different grayscale scans – tissue types are easier to discern through pseudo color.

Two Landsat satellite images showing the same region:
Chesapeake Bay and the city of Baltimore

This true-color image shows the area in actual colors, e.g., the vegetation appears in green. It covers the full visible spectrum using the red, green and blue / green spectral bands of the satellite mapped to the RGB color space of the image.

The same area as a false-color image using the near infrared, red and green spectral bands mapped to RGB – this image shows vegetation in a red tone, as vegetation reflects most light in the near infrared.

Images for kids

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  A mosaic constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by Galileo's imaging system as it flew over the northern regions of the Moon in December 1992

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  A false-color image from the Meteor M2-2 satellite's imager MSU-MR. The image was received by an amateur radio station and is derived from the HRPT data.

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  Burns Cliff inside of Endurance crater on Mars. The color is approximate true color because, instead of the red spectral band, infrared was used. The result is a metameric failure in the color of the sky, which is slightly green in the image – had a human observer been present, then that person would have perceived the actual sky color to have a bit more orange in it. The Opportunity rover which captured this image does have a red filter, but it is often not used, due to the higher scientific value of images captured using the infrared band and the constraints of data transmission.

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  An image of Tasmania and surrounding waters using density slicing to show phytoplankton concentration. The ocean color as captured by the satellite image is mapped to seven colors: Yellow, orange and red indicate more phytoplankton, while light green, dark green, light blue and dark blue indicate less phytoplankton; land and clouds are depicted in different colors.

See also

In Spanish: Falso color para niños