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ASTER (Terra)

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Often referred to as ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer), this is technically the imaging instrument onboard the satellite Terra – the first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite.

 

Terra was launched on the 18th December 1999 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and flies in a sun-synchronous polar orbit, crossing the equator in the morning at 10:30 am. ASTER is one of five state-of-the-art instrument sensor systems onboard Terra. It has a unique combination of wide spectral coverage and medium spatial resolution in the visible, near-infrared through shortwave infrared to the thermal infrared regions.

ASTER data contributes to a wide array of global change related applications including vegetation and ecosystem dynamics, hazard monitoring, geology and soils, land surface climatology, hydrology and land cover change.

ASTER consists of three different subsystems: the Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR), the Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) and the Thermal Infrared (TIR). The VNIR subsystem consists of two independent telescope assemblies. One is vertical looking and has three detector arrays collecting data in the visible green, visible red and near infrared wavelengths, while a backward-looking telescope has one detector array in the same spectral band as the near infrared of the vertical array. The two near infrared (3N and 3B) generate an along-track stereo image pair with a base-to-height ratio of 0.6 and an intersection angle of 27.7°, which can be used to generate digital elevation models (DEMs).

Features and Benefits

  • ASTER data contributes to a wide array of applications such as vegetation and soil analysis, land surface climatology and hydrology.
  • Swath width of 60km at nadir.
  • Consists of 3 subsystems – VNIR, SWIR and TIR.

Technical Specifications

Specification

Details

Resolution

VNIR=15m

SWIR=30m

TIR=90m

Scene Size

60km x 60km

Bands

Bands: 3 VNIR, 6 SWIR, 5 TIR

VNIR Band 1 (Green): 520-600 nm
VNIR Band 2 (Red): 630-690 nm
VNIR Band 3 (NIR): 780-860 nm

SWIR Band 4: 1.6-1.7 μm
SWIR Band 5: 2.145-2.185 μm
SWIR Band 6: 2.185-2.225 μm
SWIR Band 7: 2.235-2.285 μm
SWIR Band 8: 2.295-2.365 μm
SWIR Band 9: 2.36-2.43 μm

TIR Band 10: 8.125-8.475 μm
TIR Band 11: 8.475-8.825 μm
TIR Band 12: 8.925-9.275 μm
TIR Band 13: 10.25-10.95 μm
TIR Band 14: 10.95-11.65 μm

Largest Scale

1:25,000 VNIR & SWIR

1:50,000 SWIR

Bit depth

8 bit VNIR & SWIR

12 bit TIR

Programmable

No

Stereo Available

Yes – along track stereo from Level 1A VNIR bands 3N & 3B

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