It is researched how the calculation of vegetation indices is influenced by the empirical methods of atmospheric correction. The authors give a description to each method of the limitation and their range of applicability. As raw data we took the information by the domestic hyper-spectral equipment “Resource-P” №1 and the data of MODIS/Terra to form spectral ranges corresponding to the functions of spectral sensibility. Full atmospheric correction was also performed using the software 6S for ethanol. The standard error is determined through making scatterogramms. The authors determined the best method of empirical atmospheric correction. The results of this work can be used in data processing Resurs-P №№ 1, 2.