Updated: 31 March 2006

ASTER - Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is a sensor onboard the Terra satellite (pictured right), launched in December 1999. The Terra satellite also carries the MODIS sensor and follows a similar orbit to Landsat 7. ASTER is the result of a cooperative effort between NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC).

ASTER data may be used for a range of applications including land-use studies, mapping, geology, water resources, coastal resources, environment and generation of digital elevation models (DEM).

ASTER's spectral bands and spatial resolution are generally more detailed than those of Landsat, meaning it is particularly useful for geological studies as well as environmental monitoring. However, unlike Landsat, repeat coverage by the ASTER sensor is more infrequent. This can be addressed to some extent by customers placing General Programming Requests (GPR) through ACRES.

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The ASTER instrument consists of three separate instrument subsystems:

Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
Shortwave Infrared (SWIR)
Thermal Infrared (TIR)

ASTER has 14 bands of information according to the following table:

Instrument	VNIR	SWIR	TIR
Bands	1-3	4-9	10-14
Spatial resolution	15m	30m	90m
Swath width	60km	60km	60km
Cross track pointing	± 318km (± 24 deg)	± 116km (± 8.55 deg)	± 116km (± 8.55 deg)
Quantisation (bits)	8	8	12
Note: Band 3 has nadir and backward telescopes for stereo pairs from a single orbit.

The spectral range of each band is shown in the following diagram and table (courtesy NASA):

Characteristic	VNIR	SWIR	TIR
Spectral Range	Band 1: 0.52 - 0.60 µm (visible green) Nadir looking	Band 4: 1.600 - 1.700 µm	Band 10: 8.125 - 8.475 µm
	Band 2: 0.63 - 0.69 µm (visible red) Nadir looking	Band 5: 2.145 - 2.185 µm	Band 11: 8.475 - 8.825 µm
	Band 3: 0.76 - 0.86 µm (near infra-red) Nadir looking	Band 6: 2.185 - 2.225 µm	Band 12: 8.925 - 9.275 µm
	Band 3: 0.76 - 0.86 µm (near infra-red) Backward looking	Band 7: 2.235 - 2.285 µm	Band 13: 10.25 - 10.95 µm
	-	Band 8: 2.295 - 2.365 µm	Band 14: 10.95 - 11.65 µm
	-	Band 9: 2.360 - 2.430 µm	-

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How to process ASTER data

See "A simple guide to ASTER Mineral Index Processing" [pdf_1482kb] for an outline on how to process ASTER data in ER Mapper to generate Mineral Index Maps.

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Enquiries and orders for ASTER data

To enquire about data availability or to order your ASTER satellite data, please contact ACRES. Prices for ACRES ASTER data can be found in the ASTER price list.

Trading conditions

Special copyright conditions apply to the sale of satellite data. In order to purchase satellite data products, users must agree to the licence conditions covering its use. For more information please contact ACRES or see the End-User Licences page.