Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of a number of instruments on board the Terra platform, which was launched in December 1999. ASTER provides fourteen spectral bands with 15- to 90-meter resolutions depending on the band(s). ASTER does not acquire data continuously; its sensors are activated only to collect specific scenes upon request.

The instrument consists of three separate telescopes; each provides a different spectral range and resolution. The VNIR (visible and near-infrared) sensor provides 4 bands at 15-meter resolution. The SWIR (short-wave infrared) sensor provides 6 bands at 30-meter resolution. The TIR (thermal infrared) sensor provides 5 bands at 90-meter resolution. The swath width for all sensors is 60 kilometers.

ASTER data distributed from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center is available in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection, with a resampling method of cubic convolution for daytime scenes and nearest neighbor for nighttime scenes. Files are in the HDF-EOS or GeoTIFF format with the exception of ASTER Level-3 products, which are available in GeoTIFF only.

The following products and services are available

ASTER Products are subject to the appropriate band availability. Approved NASA supported researchers and their affiliates, educational users, and Federal partners may order ASTER data from the LP DAAC:

• Level-1 Reconstructed Unprocessed Instrument Data
• Level-2 Registered Radiance at the Sensor
• Level-2 On-Demand Decorrelation Stretch (VNIR, SWIR & TIR)
• Level-2 Brightness Temperature (TIR)
• Level-2 Surface Emissivity (TIR)
• Level-2 Surface Reflectance (VNIR & SWIR)
• Level-2 Surface Reflectance Crosstalk-Corrected (VNIR & SWIR)
• Level-2 Surface Kinetic Temperature (TIR)
• Level-2 Surface Radiance (VNIR, SWIR & TIR)
• Level-2 Surface Radiance Crosstalk-Corrected (VNIR & SWIR)
• Level-2 Polar Surface and Cloud Classification (VNIR)
• Level-3 ASTER DEM; created from Level 1A data (VNIR)
• Level-3 ASTER Orthorectified; created from Level 1A data (VNIR)
• Level-3 ASTER DEM and Orthorectified; created from Level 1A data (VNIR)
• Level-4 ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) – WIST: Log-in as Registered User

Product Descriptions

ASTER Scene Requests are also available because ASTER data is not acquired on a continuous basis, and the sensors collect specific scenes as tasked. Authorized investigators can request the acquisition of a particular scene(s), although each request is subject to approval by the ASTER Science Team. For information on obtaining ASTER request privileges, see the ASTER User Authorization site.