The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a standard band-ratio calculation frequently used to analyze ecological remote sensing data. NDVI indicates whether the remotely-sensed target contains live green vegetation. When sunlight strikes objects, certain wavelengths of this spectrum are absorbed and other wavelengths are reflected. The pigment chlorophyll in plant leaves strongly absorbs visible light (with wavelengths in the range of 400-700 nm) for use in photosynthesis. However, the cell structure of the leaves strongly reflects near-infrared light (wavelengths ranging from 700 - 1100 nm). Plants reflect up to 60% more light in the near-infrared portion of the spectrum than they do in the green portion of the spectrum. By comparing the ratio of Near Infrared (NIR) to Visible (VIS) bands in hyperspectral data, we can obtain a quick look at the vegetation in the region of interest. NDVI is a normalized measure of the difference between reflectance at near-infrared and visible bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Use this tutorial (https://www.battelleecology.org/calc-ndvi-py) to demonstrate how this process can be executed in Python.