The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) is an 'optimized' index designed to enhance the vegetation signal with improved sensitivity in high biomass regions and improved vegetation monitoring through a de-coupling of the canopy background signal and a reduction in atmosphere influences.

EVI is computed following this equation: EVI = G*(NIR-RED)/(NIR+C1*RED-C2*Blue*L)

where NIR/red/blue are atmospherically-corrected or partially atmosphere corrected (Rayleigh and ozone absorption) surface reflectances, L is the canopy background adjustment that addresses non-linear, differential NIR and red radiant transfer through a canopy, and C1, C2 are the coefficients of the aerosol resistance term, which uses the blue band to correct for aerosol influences in the red band. The coefficients adopted in the MODIS-EVI algorithm are: L=1, C1 = 6, C2 = 7.5, and G (gain factor) = 2.5.

Whereas the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is chlorophyll sensitive, the EVI is more responsive to canopy structural variations, including leaf area index (LAI), canopy type, plant physiognomy, and canopy architecture. The two vegetation indices complement each other in global vegetation studies and improve upon the detection of vegetation changes and extraction of canopy biophysical parameters.