How green the land is, daily (Landsat, 30 m) — HLSL30_VI

In plain English

What it measures. Daily measures of how green the land is, expressed as several vegetation indices, at a fine 30-meter resolution. Each index combines satellite bands to capture a different aspect of plant health.

How it's made. Derived from the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 and 9 satellites, gridded and harmonized so it stacks neatly with the matching Sentinel-2 product for time-series work.

How & where you'd use it. Lets people track vegetation changes over time, spot stressed crops or deforestation, and assess crop and ecosystem health at field scale, with frequent updates thanks to combining multiple satellites.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCEBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEXLAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX (EVI)

Coverage & cadence

Time span2013-04-11 → ongoing
Measured byLANDSAT-8 (OLI) · LANDSAT-9 (OLI)
Processing levelLevel 2
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
FormatsCOG
StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time

Official description

The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project provides consistent data products from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) aboard the joint NASA/USGS Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites and the Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) aboard Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B, and Sentinel-2C satellites. The combined measurement enables global observations of the land every 1.6 days at 30 meter (m) spatial resolution. The HLSL30 Vegetation Indices (HLSL30_VI) product is derived from Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 OLI data products. Vegetation indices combine specific bands of satellite data to quantify various aspects of vegetation. Analysis of vegetation indices allows for tracking changes in vegetation over time, identifying areas of stress or deforestation, and assessing crop health. Vegetation indices provide a reliable and efficient means of understanding the complex dynamics of vegetation health. The HLSS30_VI and HLSL30_VI products are gridded to the same resolution and Military Grid Reference System ([MGRS](https://hls.gsfc.nasa.gov/products-description/tiling-system/)) tiling system and thus are “stackable” for time series analysis. The HLSL30_VI product is provided in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format, and each variable is distributed as a separate file. Nine indicators of vegetation health are included in the HLSL30_VI product: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), Normalized Burn Ratio 2 (NBR2), and Triangular Vegetation Index (TVI). See the User Guide for a more detailed description of the individual vegetation health variables provided in the HLSL30_VI product. The HLS project is funded by NASA’s Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) which provides data products developed to meet the needs of stakeholders from US government agencies.

Get the data

hlsl30_vi_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HLSL30_VI",
    version="2.0",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links