Overview of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 1062 - 1071
• Main Authors: Yamaguchi, Y., Kahle, A.B., Tsu, H., Kawakami, T., Pniel, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.07.1998
• Subjects: Aerospace industry; Ecosystems; Infrared spectra; Instruments; International trade; Land surface; Monitoring; Radiometry; Reflection; Spatial resolution
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/36.700991

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is a research facility instrument provided by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Tokyo, Japan to be launched on NASA's Earth Observing System morning (EOS-AM1) platform in 1998. ASTER has three spectral hands in the visible near-infrared (VNIR), six bands in the shortwave infrared (SWIR), and five bands in the thermal infrared (TIR) regions, with 15-, 30-, and 90-m ground resolution, respectively. The VNIR subsystem has one backward-viewing band for stereoscopic observation in the along-track direction. Because the data will have wide spectral coverage and relatively high spatial resolution, it will be possible to discriminate a variety of surface materials and reduce problems in some lower resolution data resulting from mixed pixels. ASTER will, for the first time, provide high-spatial resolution multispectral thermal infrared data from orbit and the highest spatial resolution surface spectral reflectance temperature and emissivity data of all of the EOS-AM1 instruments. The primary science objective of the ASTER mission is to improve understanding of the local- and regional-scale processes occurring on or near the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere, including surface-atmosphere interactions. Specific areas of the science investigation include the following: (1) land surface climatology; (2) vegetation and ecosystem dynamics; (3) volcano monitoring; (4) hazard monitoring; (5) aerosols and clouds; (6) carbon cycling in the marine ecosystem; (7) hydrology; (8) geology and soil; and (9) land surface and land cover change. There are three categories of ASTER data: a global map, regional monitoring data sets, and local data sets to be obtained for requests from individual investigators.