Optimization of soil-adjusted vegetation indices

Abstract

The sensitivity of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to soil background and atmospheric effects has generated an increasing interest in the development of new indices, such as the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), transformed soil-adjusted vegetation index (TSAVI), atmospherically resistant vegetation index (ARVI), global environment monitoring index (GEMI), modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), which are less sensitive to these external influences. These indices are theoretically more reliable than NDVI, although they are not yet widely used with satellite data. This article focuses on testing and comparing the sensitivity of NDVI, SAVI, TSAVI, MSAVI and GEMI to soil background effects. Indices are simulated with the SAIL model for a large range of soil reflectances, including sand, clay, and dark peat, with additional variations induced by moisture and roughness. The general formulation of the SAVI family of indices with the form VI = (NIR - R) / (NIR + R + X) is also reexamined. The value of the parameter X is critical in the minimization of soil effects. A value of X = 0.16 is found as the optimized value. Index performances are compared by means of an analysis of variance.