Landsat Surface Reflectance-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products are produced from Landsat 4–5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 8-9* Operational Land Imager (OLI)/Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) Collection 1 and Collection 2 scenes that have been processed to Landsat Level-2 Surface Reflectance products. *Landsat 9 = Collection 2 only
NDVI is used to quantify vegetation greenness and is useful in understanding vegetation density and assessing changes in plant health. NDVI is calculated as a ratio between the red (R) and near infrared (NIR) values in traditional fashion:
(NIR - R) / (NIR + R)
In Landsat 4-7, NDVI = (Band 4 – Band 3) / (Band 4 + Band 3).
In Landsat 8-9, NDVI = (Band 5 – Band 4) / (Band 5 + Band 4).
