Normalised Difference Moisture Index (NDMI): JNCC Sentinel-2 indices Analysis Ready Data (ARD)

NDMI can be used to assess vegetation moisture content, and is calculated as the ratio between the near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands. It is commonly used to assess water stress in plants. Positive values tend to correspond to vegetated surfaces, with the value increasing towards 1 as moisture content and vegetation density increase.

NDMI = (NIR – SWIR) / (NIR + SWIR)

Sentinel-2 NDMI (Defra/JNCC ARD bands) = (B07 – B09) / (B07 + B09)

Equivalent ESA Sentinel-2 bands: B08, B11

Data are provided in EPSG: 27700 OSGB36 / British National Grid, with a pixel size of 10m, and data is pixel-aligned to the source ARD file. No-data pixels are set to a value of -9999.

These data have been created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) as part of the “Earth observation-based habitat condition change detection” project. This project is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme. The project seeks to facilitate the effective uptake and use of Earth Observation data by producing data and tools for investigating and detecting parcel-level change in habitats and habitat condition.

The dataset contains NDVI, NDMI, NDWI, NBR and EVI2 indices derived from Defra and JNCC Sentinel-2 ARD. Index files have been generated for Sentinel-2 granules covering England and Scotland for the period from 2015 to 2024. Note that new unmasked index files (v2) have superseded the previous masked index files (v1). Masked files will no longer be produced. Users can mask the new index files if required using the cloud and topographic shadow masks provided with the ARD, or masks of their choice.

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2015-2024.