Improved vegetation index that reduces atmospheric and soil background effects. More sensitive to vegetation changes than NDVI.

Used in crop monitoring, forest monitoring, and mineral exploration.

When to use

  • Time-series monitoring of crop health, growth stages, and stress detection
  • Land cover classification and vegetation type discrimination
  • Biomass estimation and net primary productivity studies
  • Drought impact assessment over agricultural and forest areas
  • Phenology tracking — green-up, peak season, and senescence
  • Agriculture
  • Forest Health Assessment

Limitations

  • Saturates in dense canopies (LAI > 3) — values plateau and lose discrimination ability
  • Sensitive to atmospheric scattering, especially blue-band haze
  • Soil background contaminates measurements in sparsely vegetated areas
  • Sun-sensor geometry (BRDF effects) introduces variability across acquisitions
  • Cloud cover and shadows produce invalid pixels that need masking

What the values mean

-1 Water / Snow
-0.1 Bare ground / Built-up
0.1 Sparse / Stressed
0.3 Moderate vegetation
0.5 Healthy vegetation
0.7 Dense canopy
Surface typeTypical EVI
Open water, snow-0.3 to -0.1
Bare soil, urban-0.1 to 0.2
Sparse or stressed crops0.2 to 0.4
Healthy crops, grassland0.4 to 0.7
Dense forest, peak season0.7 to 0.9

General Formula

Blue 450-520 nm
Red 630-690 nm
NIR 770-900 nm

Sensor-Specific Formulas

Most-used sensors — click to show code below

SensorProviderFormulaBand Mapping
21AT2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1))Blue→Blue, Red→Red, NIR→NIR
CG Satellite2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1))Blue→Blue, Red→Red, NIR→NIR
USGS/NASA2.5 * ((B5 - B4) / (B5 + 6 * B4 - 7.5 * B1 + 1))Blue→B1, Red→B4, NIR→B5
USDA2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1))Blue→Blue, Red→Red, NIR→NIR
ESA2.5 * ((B8 - B4) / (B8 + 6 * B4 - 7.5 * B1 + 1))Blue→B1, Red→B4, NIR→B8
MAXAR2.5 * ((NIR1 - Red) / (NIR1 + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1))Blue→Blue, Red→Red, NIR→NIR1
MAXAR2.5 * ((NIR1 - Red) / (NIR1 + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1))Blue→Blue, Red→Red, NIR→NIR1

Spectral Band Visualization — BJ3A

Code Examples

Adapted for BJ3A bands —

evi_bj3a.py

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) and when should I use it?

Improved vegetation index that reduces atmospheric and soil background effects. More sensitive to vegetation changes than NDVI. Vegetation indices quantify plant health, biomass, and photosynthetic activity by exploiting the contrast between how plants absorb visible light for photosynthesis and reflect near-infrared radiation from their cellular structure. EVI is particularly suited for agriculture, forest health assessment, phenology studies. The general formula is 2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1)), which requires Blue and Red and NIR spectral bands.

Which satellite sensors can I use to calculate EVI?

EVI is supported by 23 satellite sensors in our database, including BJ3A, BJ3N, Dragonette-1, Dragonette-2/3, Gaofen-1 and 18 more. Each sensor uses different band designations — for example, BJ3A uses the formula 2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1)), while BJ3N uses 2.5 * ((NIR - Red) / (NIR + 6 * Red - 7.5 * Blue + 1)). Select a sensor above to see its specific band mapping.

What spectral bands does EVI require and why?

EVI requires Blue (450-520 nm), Red (630-690 nm), NIR (770-900 nm). Vegetation strongly absorbs red light for photosynthesis while reflecting near-infrared light from its mesophyll cell structure, making this contrast a reliable indicator of plant vigour.

How do I calculate EVI in Python or R?

Both Python and R code samples are provided above. In Python, use rasterio to load individual band GeoTIFF files and numpy for the arithmetic. In R, the terra package handles raster operations efficiently. The key is to load bands as floating-point arrays to avoid integer division, and to handle division-by-zero cases where the denominator equals zero. For production use, consider applying a valid data mask to exclude no-data pixels before calculation.

How does EVI compare to NDVI and other vegetation indices?

While NDVI is the most common vegetation index, EVI incorporates additional spectral bands to reduce atmospheric interference and soil background effects. The choice of index depends on your application, sensor availability, and atmospheric conditions.

EVI vs other vegetation indices

IndexNameHow it differs
ARIAnthocyanin Reflectance IndexAlternative vegetation index — different band combination
mARIModified Anthocyanin Reflectance IndexRefined formulation for specific conditions
ARVIAtmospherically Resistant Vegetation IndexAtmospherically corrected version
ARVI2Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index 2Atmospherically corrected version

Related Vegetation Indices

References

Huete et al. (2002)

Need help choosing?

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