About ndvi.us
ndvi.us is a free crop health monitoring tool built for farmers, agronomists, and agricultural extension workers. By using free European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, the platform lets anyone instantly see the vegetation health of any field in the world — no signup, no payment, no software install.
What it does
Draw the boundary of your farm on the map. Within seconds the app fetches the latest cloud-free Sentinel-2 satellite pass over your field and displays the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) — a scientific measure of how much living green plant matter is present in each square. You see exactly where your crop is healthy, where it's stressed, and how it's changing over time.
Why it matters for farmers
Traditionally, satellite imagery and NDVI analysis cost hundreds of dollars per field per year through commercial agritech subscriptions. ndvi.us makes this same intelligence completely free using the EU's open Copernicus program. A farmer in rural Punjab now has access to the same satellite-based crop monitoring as a commercial farm in California — with no cost barrier, no language barrier, and no technology skill required beyond using a smartphone.
How the science works
Sentinel-2 satellites pass over every 5 days and capture imagery in multiple spectral bands. We compute NDVI as (NIR − Red) / (NIR + Red) using the near-infrared (B08) and red (B04) bands. Healthy vegetation reflects strongly in NIR and absorbs red light — giving high NDVI values (0.6–0.9). Bare soil or stressed crops produce low NDVI values (0.1–0.3). The resulting color map shows each 10×10 meter pixel of your field.
Limitations to know about
Clouds can block satellite imagery — we skip cloudy days and show only clear passes. Very small fields (under 0.25 acres) may look pixelated since Sentinel-2 captures at 10-meter resolution. The data reflects what the satellite saw on a specific date, not real-time conditions.
Built by Shahzaib Irshad
I'm a qualified agriculture expert passionate about making modern agricultural technology accessible to farmers everywhere — especially in Pakistan and South Asia. ndvi.us is a personal project to bridge the gap between high-end satellite analytics and the small farmer who needs them most.
View LinkedIn Profile →Data sources
Satellite imagery: ESA Copernicus / Sentinel-2 via Sentinel Hub. Base maps: Esri World Imagery and OpenStreetMap. Geocoding: Nominatim (OpenStreetMap). Hosting: Cloudflare.
Cost
Free, forever. ndvi.us is supported by ad revenue and personal investment — there is no plan to charge farmers, ever.