You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Italians had decided to grow nothing but poppies and tomatoes from this picture — but in fact you’re looking at an image from Sentinel-2A, where healthy vegetation shows up as red rather than green.
The image, taken above Avezzano in Italy, was captured using a multispectral camera aboard Sentinel-2A. The device shows regions that contain large quantities of chlorophyll — the substance involved in photosynthesis — as bright red. So the vivid scarlet hues in this image in fact show that the fields in this region are lush and verdant. In contrast, the dull green-grey regions are urban and industrial areas around the large plain of farmland.
[ESA]
