Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Normalized Difference Moisture Index

Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) is used to determine vegetation water content. It is calculated as a ratio between the NIR and SWIR values in traditional fashion.

Return to Landsat Surface Reflectance-derived Spectral Indices Overview

 

Landsat Surface Reflectance and Normalized Difference Moisture Index
This image displays a (left) Landsat Surface Reflectance (SR) and (right) the SR-derived Landsat Surface Reflectance Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI).

Landsat Surface Reflectance-derived Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) 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 

NDMI is used to determine vegetation water content. It is calculated as a ratio between the NIR and SWIR values in traditional fashion.

(NIR - SWIR) / (NIR + SWIR)

In Landsat 4-7, NDMI = (Band 4 – Band 5) / (Band 4 + Band 5).

In Landsat 8-9, NDMI = (Band 5 – Band 6) / (Band 5 + Band 6).

NDMI is delivered as a single band product specified as shown in the table below.


Landsat Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) Specifications

Attribute Value
Long Name Normalized Difference Moisture Index
Short Name LC8NDMI, LE7NDMI, LT5NDMI, or LT4NDMI
File Name *_sr_ndmi.tif
Data Type Signed 16-bit Integer
Units Spectral Index (Band Ratio)
Valid Range -10,000 — 10,000
Fill Value Collection 2: -19999 Collection 1: -9999
Saturate Value 20,000
Scale Factor *0.0001

Data Access

Landsat Surface Reflectance-derived NDMI are produced on-demand, using the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Science Processing Architecture (ESPA) On Demand Interface

Visit the Landsat Surface Reflectance-derived Spectral Indices page for information on product constraints, citation, and reference information. 

Was this page helpful?