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Posts tagged ‘NDVI’

Top Five Blog Posts in 2017

In case you missed them the first time around, here are the most popular Environmental Biophysics.org blog posts in 2017.

Soil Moisture Sensors: Why TDR vs. Capacitance May Be Missing the Point

Researcher holding a soil sensor in front of a field

Soil moisture sensor

Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) vs. capacitance is a common question for scientists who want to measure volumetric water content (VWC) of soil, but is it the right question?  Dr. Colin S. Campbell, soil scientist, explains some of the history and technology behind TDR vs. capacitance and the most important questions scientists need to ask before investing in a sensor system. Read more

Get More From your NDVI Sensor

Looking up at tree branches from the ground

Modern technology has made it possible to sample Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across a range of scales both in space and in time, from satellites sampling the entire earth’s surface to handheld small sensors that measure individual plants or even leaves.  Read more

Improved Methods Save Money in Future Borehole Thermal Energy Storage Design

Image of a city with many buildings

Globally, the gap between the energy production and consumption is growing wider. To promote sustainability, University of California San Diego PhD candidate and ASCE GI Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering committee member, Tugce Baser, Dr. John McCartney, Associate Professor, and their research team, Dr. Ning Lu, Professor at Colorado School of Mines and Dr. Yi Dong, Postdoctoral Researcher at Colorado School of Mines, are working on improving methods for borehole thermal energy storage (BTES), a system which stores solar heat in the soil during the summer months for reuse in homes during the winter. Read more

New Weather Station Technology in Africa

Happy students gathered around an ATMOS 41 weather station

Weather data, used for flight safety, disaster relief, crop and property insurance, and emergency services, contributes over $30 billion in direct value to U.S. consumers annually. Since the 1990’s in Africa, however, there’s been a consistent decline in the availability of weather observations. Read more

Electrical Conductivity of Soil as a Predictor of Plant Response

Corn stalks looking up at the sky from the ground

Plants require nutrients to grow, and if we fail to supply the proper nutrients in the proper concentrations, plant function is affected. Fertilizer in too high concentration can also affect plant function, and sometimes is fatal.  Read more

And our three most popular blogs of all time:

Estimating Relative Humidity in Soil: How to Stop Doing it Wrong

Image of a tree in the desert

Estimating the relative humidity in soil?  Most people do it wrong…every time.  Dr. Gaylon S. Campbell shares a lesson on how to correctly estimate soil relative humidity from his new book, Soil Physics with Python, which he recently co-authored with Dr. Marco Bittelli.  Read more

How to Measure Water Potential

Plants sprouting out of the sand

In the conclusion of our three-part water potential series, we discuss how to measure water potential—different methods, their strengths, and their limitations. Read more

Do the Standards for Field Capacity and Permanent Wilting Point Need to be Reexamined?

Image of rolling fields in front of mountains

We were inspired by this Freakonomics podcast, which highlights the bookThis Idea Must Die: Scientific Problems that are Blocking Progress, to come up with our own answers to the question:  Which scientific ideas are ready for retirement?  We asked scientist, Dr. Gaylon S. Campbell, which scientific idea he thinks impedes progress.  Here’s what he had to say about the standards for field capacity and permanent wilting point. Read more

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How to Get More From Your NDVI Sensor (Part 3)

In the conclusion of our three-part series on improving NDVI sensor data (see part 2), we discuss how to correct for limitations which occur in high leaf area index (LAI) conditions.

NDVI Sensor

Where there’s a large amount of vegetation, NDVI tends to saturate.

NDVI Limitations – High LAI

NDVI is useful in the midrange of LAI’s as long as you don’t have strong soil effects, but as you approach an LAI above 4, you lose sensitivity. In figure 6, loss of sensitivity is primarily due to a saturation in the red band. Measurements were taken in a wheat canopy and a maize canopy. The near-infrared reflectance is sensitive across the entire spectrum of the wheat and maize canopies, but the red saturates relatively quickly. Where the red starts to saturate is where the NDVI starts to saturate.

NDVI Sensor

Figure 6: Gitelson (2004) J. Plant Phys

Note: NDVI saturates at high LAI’s, however, if your purpose is to get at the fractional interception of light, NDVI tends not to have the saturation issue. In Figure 7, Fpar or the fractional interception of light of photosynthetically radiation is nearly complete far before NDVI saturates. This is because canopies are efficient at intercepting light, and once we get to an LAI of about 4, most of the light has been intercepted or absorbed by the canopy.  Thus, incremental increases in LAI don’t significantly affect the FPar variable.

NDVI Sensor

Figure 7: Fractional interception of light is near complete at an LAI around 4. (Gamon et al. (1995) Eco. Apps)

Solution 3- WDRVI

One solution for the NDVI saturation issue is called the Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index (WDRVI). Its formulation is similar to NDVI, except for a weighting coefficient that can be used to reduce the disparity between the contribution of the near infrared and red reflectance.  

NDVI Sensor

In the WDRVI, a is multiplied by the near-infrared reflectance to reduce its value and bring it closer to the red reflectance value. In doing so, it balances out the red and the near-infrared contribution to the vegetation index.

NDVI Sensor

Figure 8: (Gitelson (2004) J. Plant Phys)

a can range anywhere from 0 to 1. Figure 8 shows that as we use a smaller value of a, we get an increasing linear response of the wide dynamic vegetation index to LAI.

The only drawback of the WDRVI is that the selection of a is subjective. It’s something that you experiment on your own until you find a value for a that is optimal for your solution.  People tend to err on the side of a very low value simply because they’ll get closer and closer to a linear response to LAI as a decreases.

Solution 4 – Enhanced Vegetation Index

The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) was designed to enhance sensitivity in high biomass ecosystems, but it also attempts to reduce atmospheric influences.  This was a vegetation index created for the purposes of a satellite-based platform. There’s a lot of atmosphere to look through from a satellite to the ground, and sometimes the aerosols in the atmosphere affect the reflectances in the red and the near infrared regions causing spurious observations.  The EVI also tries to reduce sensitivity of the index to soil. Thus the EVI is a kind of solution to both extremes.

NDVI Sensor

In the EVI equation, the two major inputs are near infrared and red reflectances.  C1 , C2, and L are all parameters that can be estimated, but the blue band is something that has to be measured. Most NDVI sensors are two band sensors, so you don’t have that information in the blue.  Plus, with satellites, the blue band is relatively noisy and doesn’t always have the best quality data, thus EVI has limited value.

Solution 6: EVI2 (Enhanced Vegetation Index 2)

Those problems led a scientist named Jiang to come up with a solution.  Jiang observed quite a bit of autocorrelation between the red band and the blue band, so he decided to try and formulate EVI without the blue band in what he called the EVI2 (Enhanced Vegetation Index 2).  if you’re interested in the mathematics, we encourage you to read his paper, but here we give you the equation in case you’re interested in using it.

NDVI Sensor

Figure 9

When Jiang calculated his EVI2 and compared it to the traditional EVI (Figure 9), it was nearly a one to one relationship. For all intents and purposes EVI2 was equivalent to EVI.  Since this avoids blue band, it offers some exciting possibilities as it reduces to just using the two inputs of NIR and red bands to calculate NDVI.

NDVI Sensor Summary

NDVI measurements have considerable value, and though there are extremes where NDVI performs poorly, even in these cases there are several solutions.  These solutions all use the near infrared and the red bands, so you can take an NDVI sensor, obtain the raw values of NIR and red reflectances and reformulate them in one of these indices (there are several other indices available that we haven’t covered). So if you’re in a system with extremely high or low LAI, try to determine how near infrared and red bands can be used in some type of vegetation index to allow you to research your specific application.

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Get More From Your NDVI Sensor (Part 2)

Last week we discussed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) sampling across a range of scales both in space and in time, from satellites sampling the entire earth’s surface to handheld small sensors that measure individual plants or even leaves (see part 1).  This week, learn about NDVI applications, limitations, and how to correct for those limitations.

Field with crop seedlings starting to sprout

Limitations of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index tend to occur at the extremes of the spectrum.

Green crops in a field

NDVI Applications

People use NDVI to infer things like leaf area index (LAI) or fractional light interception (FPAR) of a canopy.  Some scientists also associate NDVI with biomass or yield of a crop. People also use NDVI to get a sense of phenology (general temporal patterns of greenness), as well as where vegetation occurs or how much vegetation is in a particular location.

In Figure 4, you can see how the reflectance spectrum at a given canopy LAI changes with leaf area index, decreasing in the visible range while increasing in the near infrared.

Diagram depicting NDVI Sensor data

Figure 4

At very low LAI’s, the reflectance spectrum is relatively undifferentiated between red and NIR (black line), but when LAI is high, there’s a strong absorption of red light by chlorophyll with a strong reflectance in the NIR. In fact, as LAI increases, there’s an ever-increasing reflectance in the near infrared around 800 nm.

NDVI Limitations

Limitations of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index tend to occur at the extremes of the spectrum. Any time there’s very low vegetation cover (majority of the scene is soil), NDVI will be sensitive to that soil. This can confound measurements.  On the other extreme, where there’s a large amount of vegetation, NDVI tends to saturate. Notice the negligible difference between spectra at a leaf area index (LAI) of 3 (purple) versus 6 (green). Indeed, in a tropical forest, NDVI will not be sensitive to small changes in the LAI because LAI is already very high.  However, several solutions exist.

Solution 1-Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index

Figure 5 shows the results of a study taking spectral measurements of different vegetation indices across a transect of bare soil.  Moving from dry clay loam to wet clay loam, we see a very strong response of NDVI due to the wetness of the soil; undesirable if we’re measuring vegetation.  We’re not interested in an index that’s sensitive to changes in soil or soil moisture. However, there are a few other indices plotted in figure 5 with much lower sensitivities to variations in the soil across the transect.

Diagram of Maricopa Aircraft Data

Figure 5: Qi et al. (1994) Rem. Sens. Env.

The first one of those indices is the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI). The equation for SAVI is similar to NDVI. It incorporates the same two bands as the NDVI—the near infrared and the red.

Image depicts two equations one is NDVI and the other is SAVI

Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (Huete (1988) Rem. Sens. Env.)

The only thing that’s different, is the L parameter.  L is a soil adjustment factor with values that range anywhere from 0 to 1.  When vegetation cover is 100%, L is 0 because there’s no need for a soil background adjustment. However, when vegetation cover is very low, that L parameter will approach one. Because it is difficult to measure exactly how much vegetation cover you have without using NDVI, we can modify the NDVI so it’s not sensitive to soil by guessing beforehand what L should be. It’s common practice to set L to an intermediate value of 0.5. You can see in Figure 5 the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index or SAVI has a much lower sensitivity to the soil background.

Solution 2- Modified SAVI

The next vegetation index is the modified SAVI (MSAVI). The SAVI equation contains an L parameter that we have to estimate—not an accurate way of handling things.  So a scientist named Key developed a universal optimum for L. We won’t get into the math, but he was able to simplify the SAVI equation to where there’s no longer a need for the L parameter, and the only inputs required are the reflectances in the near infrared and the red.  

Image depicts two equations SAVI is the top equation while the bottom equation is modified SAVI or MSAVI

Modified SAVI (Qi et al. (1994) Rem. Sens. Env.)

This was a pretty significant advance as it circumvented the need to estimate or independently measure L. When Key compared SAVI to MSAVI, there was virtually no difference between the two indices in terms of their sensitivity to the amount of vegetation and their response to the soil background.

Depicts a compairson of MSAVI and SAVI in terms of dynamic range and noise level

MSAVI compares well with SAVI in terms of dynamic range and noise level (Qi et al. (1994) Rem. Sens. Env.)

Next week:  Learn about solutions for high LAI.

Download the “Researcher’s complete guide to soil moisture”—>

Download the “Researcher’s complete guide to leaf area index (LAI)”—>

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Get More From Your NDVI Sensor

Modern technology has made it possible to sample Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across a range of scales both in space and in time, from satellites sampling the entire earth’s surface to handheld small sensors that measure individual plants or even leaves.

Flat map of the earth depicting NDVI amounts covering the contents

Figure 1: NDVI is sensitive to the amount of vegetation cover that is present across the earth’s surface.

NDVI – Global

The broadest way to think of NDVI is data obtained from an earth orbiting satellite. In the figure above, you can see highly vegetated areas that have high NDVI values represented by dark green colors across the globe.  Conversely, areas of low vegetation have low NDVI values, which look brown.  NDVI is sensitive to the amount of vegetation cover that is present across the earth’s surface.

NDVI – Local

How might NDVI be useful at the plot level? Figure 2 below shows a successional gradient where time zero is a bare patch of soil, or a few forbs or annual grasses. If we leave that patch of ground for enough time, the vegetation will change: shrubs may take over from grasses and eventually we might see a forest. Across a large area, we may also move from grasslands to forest. In an agricultural system, there is yearly turnover of vegetation—from bare field to plant emergence, maturity, and senescence. This cycle repeats itself every year.  Within these growth cycles NDVI helps to quantify the canopy growth that occurs over time as well as the spatial dynamics that occur across landscapes.

Diagram depicting seasonal growth plotted against spatiotemporal variation

Figure 2: Seasonal growth plotted against spatiotemporal variation

Spectral Reflectance Data

So where does NDVI come from? In Figure 3, the x-axis plots wavelength of light within the electromagnetic spectrum; 450 to 950 nm covers both the visible region and a portion of the near infrared. On the y-axis is percent reflectance.  This is a typical reflectance spectrum from green vegetation.

Chart reflecting data and electromagnetic radiation

Figure 3: Spectral Reflectance Data. (Figure and Images: landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov)

The green hyperspectral line is what we would expect to get from a spectral radiometer.  Reflectance is typically low in the blue region, higher in the green region, and lower in the red region. It shifts dramatically as we cross from the visible to the near infrared. The two vertical bars labeled NDVI give you an idea of where a typical NDVI sensor measures within the spectrum.  One band is in the red region and the other is in the near-infrared region.  

NDVI capitalizes on the large difference between the visible region and the near infrared portion of the spectrum. Healthy, growing plants reflect near-infrared strongly.  The two images on the right of the figure above are of the same area.  The top image is displayed in true color, or three bands–blue, green and red. The image below is a false color infrared image.  The three bands displayed are blue, green, and in place of red, we used the near infrared. The bright red color indicates a lot of near infrared reflectance which is typical of green or healthy vegetation.

The reason NDVI is formulated with red and near infrared is because red keys in on chlorophyll absorption, and near infrared is sensitive to canopy structure and the internal cellular structure of leaves.  As we add leaves to a canopy, there’s more chlorophyll and structural complexities, thus we can expect decreasing amounts of red reflectance and higher amounts of near-infrared reflectance.

How Do We Calculate the NDVI?

Calculation equation of NDVI

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index takes into account the amount of near-infrared (NIR) reflected by plants. It is calculated by dividing the difference between the reflectances (Rho) in the near-infrared and red by the sum of the two.  NDVI values typically range between negative one (surface water) and one (full, vibrant canopy). Low values (0.1 – 0.4) indicate sparse canopies, while higher values (0.7 – 0.9) suggest full, active canopies.  

The way we calculate the percent reflectance is to quantify both the upwelling radiation (the radiation that’s striking the canopy and then reflected back toward our sensor) as well as the total amount of radiation that’s downwelling (from the sky) on a canopy.  The ratio of those two give us percent reflectance in each of the bands.

Next Week: Learn about NDVI applications, limitations, and how to correct for those limitations.

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Measuring NDVI in a Greenhouse Presents Challenges

Greenhouse growers need irrigation strategies to maintain high plant quality, but it’s difficult to obtain quantitative information on exactly how much water will produce the highest-quality growth.

Picture of green house full of bright red Poinsettia plants

Greenhouse plant canopies are highly variable.

Estimating irrigation needs by using reference evapotranspiration calculated from environmental factors and a crop coefficient is standard for controlling field crop irrigation, but in a greenhouse this method can be challenging.  Greenhouse plant canopies are highly variable, and there’s limited information on the crop coefficient values for ornamental crops.  

Sensor-controlled, automated irrigation system in a greenhouse

Researchers used a sensor-controlled automated irrigation system with soil moisture sensors.

Measuring Crop Size

University of Georgia researcher, Shuyang Zhen, wanted to find out if she could solve this problem for greenhouse growers using NDVI measurements to adjust for canopy size. In a greenhouse setting, she and her team planted four types of fast growing herbaceous plants in small containers on top of greenhouse benches.  They set up a small weather station to monitor environmental parameters and used that data to calculate reference evapotranspiration.  

Green plants being monitored in a greenhouse

NDVI measurements are a non-destructive, continuous monitoring method to get information as to how big a crop is.

Using a sensor-controlled automated irrigation system with soil moisture sensors, the team determined the amount of water the plants used, which allowed them to calculate a crop coefficient on a daily basis.  They then used NDVI measurements to monitor crop size.  Shuyang says, “It’s easy to monitor environmental factors such as light, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed, but it’s much harder to determine how big the crop is because many methods are destructive and time-consuming.  We chose NDVI measurements as a non-destructive, continuous monitoring method to get information as to how big our crop was. We were specifically interested in looking at how NDVI changes with the crop coefficient and how those two parameters correlate with each other.”

Purple flowers blooming in a greenhouse

Some species were more upward growing and some more sprawling.

Shuyang mounted multiple NDVI sensors on top of the benches, approximately four feet from the plants. Each sensor had a field of view of about .6 square meters and tracked the changes in plant size and NDVI values for over 8 weeks.  Shuyang says, “Each species had different growth habits.  Some species were more upward growing and some more sprawling. They also had different leaf chlorophyll content. Over the course of my study, three species reached reproductive stages, producing flowers. All of these factors had an effect on the NDVI measurements.”

Next week: Learn the results of the experiment and how fast growth and flowering caused problems with the measurement.

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