A burning Planet perspective
With the Near-IR (NIR) sensors, vegetation shines brightly (NIR colored in red, so we can see it), water does not. Burns are barren, giving new details on the Woolsey fire in southern California. How? Chlorophyll absorbs visible light (evolved to be effective at this for energy harvesting), but the cell structure of plants reflects light very strongly in the near-IR spectrum, which causes plants to be very bright in NIR.
So, it is like having the vision of a bullfrog (p.s. frog eyes are a.m.a.z.i.n.g https://flic.kr/p/4FoTom)
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