A ready-to-use curated list of Spectral Indices for Remote Sensing applications.
GitHub: https://github.com/davemlz/awesome-ee-spectral-indices
Documentation: https://awesome-ee-spectral-indices.readthedocs.io/
Spectral Indices
The ready-to-use curated list of spectral indices (check the list here) for remote sensing applications is presented here. The list is available in two formats (CSV, JSON) so it can be easily used in any programming language.
Attributes
Each item of the list has the following attributes:
short_name
: Short name of the index (e.g."NDWI"
).long_name
: Long name of the index (e.g."Normalized Difference Water Index"
).formula
: Expression/formula of the index (e.g."(G - N)/(G + N)"
).bands
: List of required bands/parameters for the index computation (e.g.["N","G"]
).reference
: Link to the index reference/paper/doi (e.g."https://doi.org/10.1080/01431169608948714"
).type
: Type/application of the index (e.g."water"
).date_of_addition
: Date of addition to the list (e.g."2021-04-07"
).contributor
: GitHub user link of the contributor (e.g."https://github.com/davemlz"
).
Expressions
The formula of the index is presented as a string/expression (e.g. "(N - R)/(N + R)"
) that can be easily evaluated. The parameters used in the expression for each index follow this standard:
Description | Standard | Sentinel-2 | Landsat-8 | Landsat-457 | MODIS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aerosols | A | B1 | B1 | ||
Blue | B | B2 | B2 | B1 | B3 |
Green | G | B3 | B3 | B2 | B4 |
Red | R | B4 | B4 | B3 | B1 |
Red Edge 1 | RE1 | B5 | |||
Red Edge 2 | RE2 | B6 | |||
Red Edge 3 | RE3 | B7 | |||
Red Edge 4 | RE4 | B8A | |||
NIR | N | B8 | B5 | B4 | B2 |
SWIR 1 | S1 | B11 | B6 | B5 | B6 |
SWIR 2 | S2 | B12 | B7 | B7 | B7 |
Thermal 1 | T1 | B10 | B6 | ||
Thermal 2 | T2 | B11 |
Additional index parameters also follow a standard:
g
: Gain factor (e.g. Used for EVI).L
: Canopy background adjustment (e.g. Used for SAVI and EVI).C1
: Coefficient 1 for the aerosol resistance term (e.g. Used for EVI).C2
: Coefficient 2 for the aerosol resistance term (e.g. Used for EVI).cexp
: Exponent used for OCVI.nexp
: Exponent used for GDVI.alpha
: Weighting coefficient used for WDRVI.sla
: Soil line slope.slb
: Soil line intercept.
The kernel indices are constructed using a special type of parameters:
kAB
: Kernel of bands/parametersA
andB
(e.g.kNR
meansk(N,R)
, wherek
is the kernel function).p
: Kernel degree (used for the polynomial kernel).c
: Free parameter that trades off the influence of higher-order versus lower-order terms (used for the polynomial kernel).
Used by
JavaScript
- spectral: Awesome Spectral Indices for the Google Earth Engine JavaScript API (Code Editor).
Python
- eemont: A python package that extends Google Earth Engine.
- eeExtra: A ninja Python package behind rgee, rgeeExtra and eemont.
- spyndex: Awesome Spectral Indices in Python.
R
- rgeeExtra: High-level functions to process spatial and simple Earth Engine objects. Popular Third-party GEE algorithms are re-coded from Javascript and Python to R.
Spectral Indices by Type
🌱
Vegetation A
- ARVI: Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index.
- ATSAVI: Adjusted Transformed Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index.
B
- BNDVI: Blue Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
C
D
- DVI: Difference Vegetation Index.
E
G
- GARI: Green Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index.
- GBNDVI: Green-Blue Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- GDVI: Generalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- GEMI: Global Environment Monitoring Index.
- GLI: Green Leaf Index.
- GNDVI: Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- GRNDVI: Green-Red Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- GVMI: Global Vegetation Moisture Index.
I
- IRECI: Inverted Red-Edge Chlorophyll Index.
M
- MCARI: Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index.
- MCARI1: Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index 1.
- MCARI2: Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index 2.
- MGRVI: Modified Green Red Vegetation Index.
- MNDVI: Modified Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- MNLI: Modified Non-Linear Vegetation Index.
- MSAVI: Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index.
- MSR: Modified Simple Ratio.
- MTCI: MERIS Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index.
- MTVI1: Modified Triangular Vegetation Index 1.
- MTVI2: Modified Triangular Vegetation Index 2.
N
- NDREI: Normalized Difference Red Edge Index.
- NDVI: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- NDYI: Normalized Difference Yellowness Index.
- NGRDI: Normalized Green Red Difference Index.
- NLI: Non-Linear Vegetation Index.
- NRFIg: Normalized Rapeseed Flowering Index Green.
- NRFIr: Normalized Rapeseed Flowering Index Red.
O
R
S
- S2REP: Sentinel-2 Red-Edge Position.
- SARVI: Soil Adjusted and Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index.
- SAVI: Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index.
- SAVI2: Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index 2.
- SeLI: Sentinel-2 LAI Green Index.
- SIPI: Structure Insensitive Pigment Index.
T
- TCARI: Transformed Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index.
- TCI: Triangular Chlorophyll Index.
- TGI: Triangular Greenness Index.
- TRRVI: Transformed Red Range Vegetation Index.
- TSAVI: Transformed Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index.
- TVI: Triangular Vegetation Index.
V
- VARI: Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index.
W
🔥
Burn B
C
- CSIT: Char Soil Index Thermal.
N
- NBR: Normalized Burn Ratio.
- NBRT: Normalized Burn Ratio Thermal.
- NDVIT: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Thermal.
S
- SAVIT: Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index Thermal.
🌊
Water
⛄
Snow - NDSI: Normalized Difference Snow Index.
🏜️
Drought
🏙️
Urban - EBBI: Enhanced Built-Up and Bareness Index.
- NDBaI: Normalized Difference Bareness Index.
- NDBI: Normalized Difference Built-Up Index.
- NHFD: Non-Homogeneous Feature Difference.
🎯
Kernel - kEVI: Kernel Enhanced Vegetation Index.
- kNDVI: Kernel Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.
- kRVI: Kernel Ratio Vegetation Index.
- kVARI: Kernel Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index.
List
Check the full list of spectral indices with their formulas here.
Download Raw Files
You can download or clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/davemlz/awesome-ee-spectral-indices.git
Or you can download the single files here (right-click > Save link as...):
Credits
- César Aybar: The formidable pydantic expert and creator of rgee.