a) The portion of a color video signal that resides on the backporch between the breezeway and the start of active video that contains a sample of the color subcarrier used to add color to a signal. It is used as a color synchronization signal to establish a reference for the color information following it and is used by a color monitor to decode the color portion of a video signal. The color burst acts as both amplitude and phase reference for color hue and intensity. The color oscillator of a color television receiver is phase locked to the color burst. b) A nine-cycle-NTSC burst of color subcarrier which is imposed on blanking after sync. Color burst serves as the reference for establishing the picture color.