ASTER

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

Terra
Terra (the former EOS AM-l ) is a flag ship spacecraft of
NASAs Earth Observing System project and was launched on
December 19, 1999 at the Vandenberg Air force Base in the
USA. Terra is equipped with ASTER and 4 other sensors.
Terra/ASTER operation has been jointly conducted by METI
(Ministry of Economy, Trade and lndustry of Japan) and
NASA.
Orbit

Sun-synchronous

Altitude

705 km

Pass time over equator

10:30 15 min. (AM) at local time,

descending

Orbit inclination

98.2 deg. 0.15 deg

Revolution time

98.88 minutes

Repeat cycle

16 days

Number of revolutions

233 revolutions

Inter - orbit distance

172 Km on the equator

Launch of Terra

ASTER

(Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer)

ASTER was developed by METI and has high performance functions as follows.
Wide spectrum of wavelength (VNIR 3 bands, SWIR 6 bands, TIR 5 bands).
Stereoscopic data in a single orbit using the near-infrared bands.
High geometric and radiometric accuracy
Worldwide coverage and reasonable prices.
Spacecraft Systems Division (the former JAROS) of Japan Space Systems is in charge of
sensor development, and Earth Remote Sensing Division (the former ERSDAC) conducts the
scheduling of observation, data processing & archiving, and distribution of ASTER products.
Spatial
resolution

Quantization
number

VNIR

15 m

SWIR

30 m

TIR

90 m

8 bits (Bands 19
12 bits (Bands 1014)

Base to height
ratio

0.6 (along track)

Swath

60 km

Mission life

5 years

Terra

Characteristic of ASTER Instruments

VNIR (Visible and Near-InfraRed) Radiometer
VNIR radiometer has 3 spectral bands that range from visible to near-infrared,
in most cases together with backward looking data (Band 3B) for the same
location except for some observation data for emergency and night time.

SWIR (Short Wave InfraRed) Radiometer

SWIR radiometer has 6 spectral bands in short wave infrared.
It is designed to acquire data applicable to various maps such as geology
and high temperature.

TIR (Thermal InfraRed) Radiometer

TlR radiometer has 5 spectral bands in thermal infrared. It enables
high accuracy observation of the thermal infrared radiation from the
earth surface, and detection of surface temperature and surface emissivity.
Radiometer

Band
1
2
3N
3B
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

VNIR

SWIR

TIR

Wavelengthm
0.520.60
0.630.69
0.760.86
0.760.86
1.6001.700
2.1452.185
2.1852.225
2.2352.285
2.2952.365
2.3602.430
8.1258.475
8.4758.825
8.9259.275
10.2510.95
10.9511.65

Spatial Resolution

Pointing Angle

15 m

8.55
(24availablein case of emergency

8.55

30 m

8.55

90 m

Spectral coverage of available optical sensor data

VNIR
LANDSAT MSS
LANDSAT ETM+

LANDSAT Pan.

TIR

SWIR
7

Panchromatic

SPOT HRG

SPOT Pan.

Panchromatic

JERS-1 OPS
ALOS AVNIR-2

ALOS PRISM

3/4

Panchromatic

Terra ASTER

0.4

0.5

0.6

3N/3B

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

micrometer

10 11 12

56 7 8 9

13

10

14

11

12

13

Data Acquired by ASTER

ASTER has been observing mainly land area on the earth since 2000. Japan Space Systems
has archived over 2,000,000 scenes including nighttime scenes (as of March 2012). The
following figures are mosaic of the observed champion (cloud free) data on the map. The left
figure is daytime scenes and the right one is nighttime scenes.

The following pictures indicate the time-lapse image of Haneda Airport, Tokyo. ASTER
images acquired at 4 different times show the progress of runway construction. Operation of
this runway was started in 2010 for international flights.

ASTER VNIR Simulated Natural Color Images

Information Derived from ASTER Data

Various kinds of information can be derived from the data of ASTER 3 sensors.
The followings are some examples.
Terra
55 seconds

27.6 deg
Line of Sight Vector
Of Band 3B

(Backward Looking

Line of Sight Vector

Of Band 3N
(Nadir Looking)

Cross Point of
Line of Sight Vector

The left figure shows a mechanism of DEM

(Digital Elevation Model) generation using
the band 3N and 3B of ASTER VNIR data.
Using generated DEM and its image data,
an ortho-rectified image and also bird-eye
view image can be composed. The base-to
height ratio (B/H) is 0.6.

Height
WGS84

The right figure is the bird-eye view of

image of Mt. Fuji area.

The left figure as false color image showing

plume from Mt. Oyama of Miyake Island.

The right pseudo color image is density of

sulfur dioxide (SO2), which is calculated
from ASTER surface emissivity product
(Level 2B04). The warmer color indicates
higher density area.

ASTER Products and Their Characteristics

Japan Space Systems processes and distributes the following ASTER products by the scene (about 6060km).
Price: JPY 9,800/scene (no tax). For Level 3A01 product, JPY 19,600/scene (no tax)
Payment method: Bank transfer or credit card (prepayment)
Format: HDF-EOS format
Distribution method: Download from our website

Level

Sample

Characteristic

Resolution

This product is depacketized and realigned instrument

observation data. Geometric correction and radiometric
calibration coefficients are appended but not applied.
This product, therefore, does not match a map of any
projection type. All products are generated from this product.

V (15 m)
S (30 m)
T (90 m)

This product is generated by applying the radiometric and

geometric correction coefficients contained in Level 1A. This
product ,therefore. matches a map of the projection method
selected by user. User can specify Map Projection and
Resampling types when ordered. From this product can be
derived physical quantities such as radiance and temperature
using the numerical(DN) values in the image data.

V (15 m)
S (30 m)
T (90 m)

2B01V
2B01S
2B01T

These products contain land surface radiance generated from

atmospheric correction applied to VNIR, SWIR and TIR data
respectively.

V (15 m)
S (30 m)
T (90 m)

2B03

This product contains surface temperatures generated from

the quantities of radiance in thermal infrared bands by applying
temperature-emissivity separation to atmospherically
corrected surface radiance
TIB(2B01T) data.

T (90 m)

2B04

This product contains surface emissivity generated from the

quantities of radiance received in thermal infrared bands by
applying temperature-emissivity separation to atmospherically
corrected surface radiance TIR (2B01T) data.

T (90 m)

2B05V
2B05S

Based on Level 2B01V and 2B01S, these products contain

land surface reflectance generated from the quantities of
radiance in VNIR and SWIR sensors.

V (15 m)
S (30 m)

This product is corrected to remove the geographic distortion

caused by elevation. The associated DEM data is also
appended.

V (15 m) + DEM
S (30 m) + DEM
T (90 m) + DEM

This product offers relative elevation data extracted from

stereoscopic data acquired in VNIR 3N (nadir-looking) and
3B(backward looking) bands. This height data is defined
against the reference ellipsoid.

Default 30 m

3A01

4A01Z

Note: Level 1A , Level 1B, and Level 3A01 products of a day time-full mode observation scenes includes the
backward Looking data (band 3B) which cover almost the same area as the nadir looking acquisition data.
The parallax is still kept only in along track direction to enable the stereo viewing

Procedure of ASTER Products

To order ASTER products is available at
ASTER/PALSAR Unified Search site.
For access to the site, click ASTER at the Project
menu on the top page of Japan Space Systems website
(http://www.jspacesystems.or.jp/ ).
In addition, ASTER Ground Data System (GDS) at
ASTER site includes various information regarding
ASTER products.

Procedures for obtaining ASTER data

User registration is required to order ASTER product.

Online registration is available at our website.

Search Level 1A product which meets your needs at our website.

Specify processing parameters to order the product other than Level 1A.

Prepayment with bank transfer or credit card is required.

For bank transfer, check our invoice delivered after order and make a remittance.
For credit card, complete the transaction procedure at our dedicated website.

Data distribution is made through online.

Obtain the data in reference to Download Notice email.
Ordered data with credit card payment can be distributed within the day.

Questions can be sent from inquiry

form in ASTER GDS and ASTER GDS
IMS website or through phone/FAX.

Notice: Prior to order, please make sure to check the latest release note and Agreement for
Distribution and Use of ASTER Products.

General Programming Request

GPR (General Programming
Request) is a service that any
users can submit observation
requests!
Contact us from ASTER GDS website or send your
inquiry to GPR Office, if you cannot find suitable archive
data or you need newly-observed data or an
observation at a specific time.

GPR Office gpr_a@jspacesystems.or.jp

Only if ASTER makes successful scene acquisition, you are obliged to
purchase the below products per scene.
Daytime observationLevel 1A, 1B and 3A01 (JPY 39,200 no tax)
Nighttime observationLevel 1A, 1B and 2B03 (JPY 29,400 no tax)

Notice: No payment required for observation which fails to meet our conditions.

ASTER GDEM
Japan Space Systems distributes ASTER Global Digital Elevation
Model (ASTER GDEM), DEM data extracted from ASTER data, by
the tile (1 degree 1 degree).

PriceNo charge
FormatGeotiff format
Distribution methodDownload from ASTER GDEM website
http://gdem.ersdac.jspacesystems.or.jp/