# Generated by scripts/sync_indices.py from Awesome Spectral Indices (MIT).
# DO NOT EDIT BY HAND. Edit overlays (_asi_*.yaml, _folia_*.yaml) and re-run.
# Spec: docs/spec/SPECTRAL_INDICES.md
slug: ndvi
name: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
short_name: NDVI
formula: (N - R)/(N + R)
bands:
- N
- R
domain: vegetation
theme: vegetation
concepts:
- fapar
- leaf-area-index
- crop-phenology
rank: 1
display:
  colormap: rdylgn
  range:
  - -0.2
  - 0.9
pedagogy:
  description: 'Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. Contrasts the near-infrared

    reflectance of photosynthetically active vegetation against the red

    absorption of chlorophyll. The universal greenness baseline against

    which every other vegetation index is compared.

    '
  use_cases:
  - Vegetation phenology and productivity monitoring at moderate resolution
  - Crop condition and yield estimation across the growing season
  - Drought stress and land-degradation detection in semi-arid regions
  limitations:
  - Saturates in dense canopies (LAI > 3) where additional leaves no longer change reflectance — use EVI, EVI2, or kNDVI instead
  - Sensitive to soil background in sparse vegetation — prefer SAVI or MSAVI when fractional cover is low
  - Atmospheric scattering biases values in aerosol-rich tropics — use ARVI when an additional blue band is available
  interpretation:
    high: Dense, photosynthetically active vegetation (forest, healthy crops)
    mid: Mixed cover, sparse canopies, stressed vegetation
    low: Bare soil, urban surfaces, rock
    negative: Water, snow, cloud
  authoritative_sources:
  - label: Rouse 1973 (NASA TR)
    url: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740022614
  - label: NV5 ENVI — Broadband Greenness
    url: https://www.nv5geospatialsoftware.com/docs/BroadbandGreenness.html
  - label: Index Database · NDVI
    url: https://www.indexdatabase.de/db/i-single.php?id=58
references:
- url: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740022614
date_of_addition: '2021-04-07'
contributor: https://github.com/davemlz
platforms:
- Sentinel-2
- Landsat-OLI
- Landsat-TM
- Landsat-ETM+
- MODIS
- Planet-Fusion
source:
  authority: awesome-spectral-indices
  commit_sha: 7f28d3fe68af1287f7449faf0685659e73197212
  upstream_id: NDVI
match_tags:
- difference
- index
- n
- normalized
- r
- vegetation
status: stable