NAME: VARUN SHRIVASTAVA

COURSE: M.Sc. DATA SCIENCE AND SPATIAL ANALYTICS

PRN: 19070243023

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

In an effort to monitor fluctuations in vegetation and understand how they affect the
environment, 20 years ago scientists began using NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution
Radiometer (AVHRR), to collect images of Earth’s surface. It has five detectors, two of which
are sensitive to the wavelengths ranging from 0.55–0.70 and 0.73–1.0 micrometres that
measure visible and NIR light in a 1 square km pixel of land surface.

We know, chlorophyll in leaves strongly absorbs visible light (from 0.4 to 0.7 µm) for use in
photosynthesis while the cell structure of the leaves strongly reflects near-infrared light (from
0.7 to 1.1 µm). The more leaves a plant has, the more these wavelengths of light are affected,
respectively. Thus, in visible light, vegetated areas appear very dark (almost black), while
desert regions are light. At NIR wavelengths, the vegetation is brighter and deserts are about
the same.

By carefully measuring the wavelengths and intensity of visible and near-infrared light
reflected by the land surface back up into space, scientists use an algorithm called a
"Vegetation Index" to quantify the concentrations of green leaf vegetation around the globe.
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is thus calculated as

NDVI = (NIR — VIS)/ (NIR + VIS)

NDVI for a given pixel always result in a number ranging from -1 to +1; however very low
values (0.1 and below) correspond to barren areas of rock, sand, or snow i.e. no vegetation,
Moderate values represent shrub and grassland (0.2 to 0.3), while high values indicate
temperate and tropical rainforests (0.6 to 0.8).

In general, if there is much more reflected radiation in NIR than in visible wavelengths, then
the vegetation in that pixel is likely to be dense and may contain some type of forest. If there
is very little difference in the intensity of visible and NIR wavelengths reflected, then the
vegetation is probably sparse and may consist of grassland, tundra, or desert.

Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)

In December 1999, NASA launched the Terra spacecraft with a sensor called the Moderate-
resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the flagship in the agency’s Earth Observing
System (EOS) program. MODIS provides much higher spatial resolution (up to 250-meter),
while also matching AVHRR’s almost-daily global cover and exceeding its spectral resolution
i.e. MODIS provides images over a given pixel of land just as often as AVHRR, but in much finer
detail and with greater number of wavelengths.

Consequently, the MODIS Team prepare a new data product–called Enhanced Vegetation
Index (EVI) that improves upon the quality of the NDVI product. EVI corrects for some
distortions in the reflected light caused by the particles in the air i.e. haze as well as the ground
cover below the vegetation. EVI is computed following this equation:

where NIR/red/blue are atmospherically-corrected surface reflectances, L is the canopy

background adjustment that addresses non-linear, differential NIR and red radiant transfer
through a canopy, and C1, C2 are the coefficients of the aerosol resistance term, which uses
the blue band to correct for aerosol influences in the red band. The coefficients adopted in
the MODIS-EVI algorithm are; L=1, C1 = 6, C2 = 7.5, and G (gain factor) = 2.5.

Advantages and Disadvantages

 Whereas NDVI is chlorophyll sensitive, EVI is more responsive to canopy structural
variations, including leaf area index (LAI), canopy type, plant physiognomy, and
canopy architecture.
 In the presence of snow, NDVI decreases, while EVI increases.
 EVI does not become saturated as easily as the NDVI when viewing areas with large
amounts of chlorophyll (ex – rainforests) i.e. it is more sensitive to differences in
heavily vegetated areas.

Neither NDVI nor EVI product will eliminate all obstacles. Clouds and aerosols can often block
the satellites’ view of the surface entirely, glare from the sun can saturate certain pixels, and
temporary malfunctions in the satellite instruments themselves can distort an image.
Consequently, many of the pixels in a day’s worth of images are indecipherable, and maps
made from the daily Vegetation Indices are patchy at best.

Comparing MODIS vegetation indices with AVHRR NDVI for monitoring the forage quantity
and quality in Inner Mongolia grassland, China

This study compared the abilities of the spectral vegetation indices (VI) of AVHRR and MODIS
sensors in accurately detecting seasonal vegetation changes (phenology) with regard to
forage quantity and quality. The vegetation in the study area is dominated by dry perennial
grasses and can be classified into three major types: Meadow steppe, Typical steppe and
Desert steppe, based on the dominant vegetation. Meadow steppe is slightly humid grassland
with many herbaceous species. Most of the meadow steppe is protected from grazing by
fencing during the summer, is usually mowed during the late summer and ensures that the
plants used for making hay usually stand until late August. Typical steppe occupies the largest
area of the Xilingol steppe. This area is used for grazing and recently large areas consisting of
high quality grasses were lost due to increased grazing pressure. Desert steppe is the most
arid type of grassland in the Xilingol steppe and thus the vegetation has a low diversity, low
stature and is very sparse.

Ten study sites - four meadow and six typical steppes, were established on the Xilingol steppe
in 2002. Three sets of field measurements were carried out from June 20–30, July 10–18 and
August 1–8, in each of the 10 sites (n = 30; 10 sites × 3 seasons) to determine the live and
dead standing crop (live and dead biomass) and the standing CP. The NDVI and EVI were
computed with a 10-day maximum value composite from April 1 to October 31,2002.

During all seasons, the MODIS-NDVI values were higher than the AVHRR-NDVI values,
especially during the wet summer season (June to August). MODIS-NDVI exhibited a greater
sensitivity and separation within humid grasslands, broadleaf forests and needleleaf forests
during the peak growing season compared with AVHRR-NDVI. A major cause of these
differences can be attributed to the influence of water vapor content in the atmosphere,
which strongly affects the AVHRR-NIR band and causes the NDVI values to decrease,
especially in the humid wet season. The MODIS sensor has narrower MODIS red and NIR
bands (0.62–0.67; 0.841–0.876 μm) compared to the AVHRR sensor (0.58–0.68; 0.72 –1.00
μm). The narrower MODIS-NIR band avoids the water absorption regions of the spectrum and
is almost unaffected by seasonal variations in atmospheric water vapor content.

Furthermore, MODIS-EVI remained sensitive to canopy variations while MODIS-NDVI showed

asymptotic saturation in high biomass regions. These results are very important, but are not
applicable on a local or regional scale, particularly in semiarid regions with lower biomass
conditions, such as the Inner Mongolia grasslands.

Also, all the VI showed a good correlation to the total (R2 = 0.53–0.83), live biomass (R2 =
0.54–0.83) and standing CP (R2 = 0.48–0.74) and the MODIS-VI showed a higher accuracy than
AVHRR-NDVI. AVHRR-NDVI showed a correlation to total (R2 = 0.63), live (R2 = 0.63) and dead
biomass (R2 = 0.18), as well as to standing nitrogen (R2 = 0.66), but not to N
concentration (R2 = 0.01).

To evaluate the different saturation effects, a crossplot between 500 m MODIS-EVI and NDVI
was constructed; NDVI values were always higher than the EVI values. In the present study,
the average EVI and NDVI values were 0.28 and 0.48, respectively. The relationship between
the EVI and NDVI values was determined with a linear equation (r = 0.93). It might be thought
that there are no differences of saturation effect between NDVI and EVI. However, when
using the NDVI model, it is necessary to pay attention for the saturation effect when
estimating to extend the prediction beyond the range of Inner Mongolia grassland.

Thus, comparisons of the MODIS-NDVI and AVHRR-NDVI profiles revealed that the MODIS-
NDVI temporal profile had a higher fidelity. Regression analysis revealed that the MODIS-VI
showed a good coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.77– 0.83) with regard to estimations of
the total and live biomass. Furthermore, the MODIS-EVI was a good predictor of standing CP
(R2 =0.74) compared with AVHRR (R2 = 0.53). These results suggest that the MODIS-VI can
reliably detect the phenology and forage quantity and quality of grassland steppe areas.

By exploiting the relationships between the MODIS-EVI and live biomass or standing CP,
land managers might be able to predict when and where high quality grassland vegetation
occurs, this is helpful for land management. Furthermore, the ability of the MODIS-VI in
timely predicting standing CP might allow land managers to predict where livestock might
graze. As with the AVHRR NDVI, the importance of the MODIS-VI lies in their ability
to provide the temporal resolution needed for the frequent monitoring of vegetation quality
changes.