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NDWI

Definition

Normalised Difference Water Index. Computed from green and near-infrared or shortwave-infrared bands. Sensitive to water content in vegetation canopy and surface soil. A freshly disturbed, wetter-than-normal soil patch can show elevated NDWI.

Related terms

Ground sampling distance (GSD)
The dimension on the ground represented by one pixel in an image. A 10 m GSD means each pixel covers a 10...
NDVI
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index. Computed as (NIR-Red)/(NIR+Red) from multispectral imagery. Values near 1 indicate dense healthy vegetation; values near 0 indicate bare...
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
An active microwave sensor that generates its own energy pulse and measures the return from the surface. Cloud-penetrating and day/night capable. Backscatter...
Temporal change detection
The comparison of multi-date images of the same area to identify pixels or features that have changed between acquisition dates. A disturbed...
Thermal infrared (TIR)
Sensor bands measuring emitted heat radiation (approximately 8-14 micrometres). Decomposing organic matter generates heat; soil with high moisture retains heat longer than...

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