The Landsat images that are shown on Earthshots are combinations of three different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Typically, the images show a combination of visible and infrared light; therefore, they are false color images. When these wavelengths, or bands, are shown individually instead of combined, different details sometimes emerge.

In the case of this Selkirk Karman vortex street scene, Landsat 7’s band 5 hints at a feature not visible in the image featured in the first section, which is a combination of bands 5, 4, and 3. Do you see it? Band 7 shows it even better. Northeast of the island, just east of the vortices, there is a bright spot and a bright plume trailing from it to the northeast. This may be a westbound ship, the effect of the ship’s exhaust shown in the clouds.