1. Capturing Disasters with Terra ASTER
Chris Doescher
LP DAAC Manager
U.S. Geological Survey
Lindsey Harriman
LP DAAC Science Integration Task Manager
SGT, Inc., contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey
Work performed under contract G15PD00766
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

2. Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
Surface Reflectance, Land Cover, Vegetation Indices
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)

3. LP DAAC Distributed Data Products
Community
MEaSUREs
MODIS
ASTER

4. ASTER
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)
Partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and Japan Space Systems (J-spacesystems)
On April 1, 2016, NASA and Japan announced that all ASTER products would be available to the public at no charge.

5. NASA’s Terra Satellite
Shortwave Infrared (SWIR)
30 m resolution
Thermal Infrared (TIR)
90 m resolution
Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) 15 m resolution
Terra launched on December 18, 1999

6. ASTER Data Acquisition
The ASTER sensor is pointable, taskable, and can collect data at night
Pointable: the sensor is directed where to point when an image is captured. Images are not on a defined tile reference system.
Taskable: the sensor only captures images when it is programmed to.
An infrared false color ASTER L1AE image of the flooding of the Red River in Colfax, Louisiana captured on March 21, 2016 after several days of heavy rain and tornadoes impacted the area. AST_L1AE is an unprocessed and expedited data product.
Flooding in Colfax, Louisiana

7. Examples of global events imaged by ASTER
Source: Duda, K., Abrams, M., 2007, ASTER and USGS EROS Emergency Imaging for Hurricane Disasters, Chapter 4: Science and the storms—the USGS response to the hurricanes of 2005: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1306, p

8. Use Case: Volcano Observation
Location: Villarrica Volcano, Chile
Data: AST_L1BE
For: Observing and analyzing many aspects of volcanic activity
Advantage of ASTER:
Pointable and taskable telescopes that can collect high resolution data when needed. Enables pre- and during eruption assessments as well as response efforts
One of Chile’s most active volcanoes. Regularly monitored through the ASTER Volcano Archive ( – this image was expedited due to new eruption. Eruption began on March 3.

9. Provides data and information for more than 1,500 active volcanoes
Provides data and information for more than 1,500 active volcanoes
AVA has nearly 177,000 ASTER scenes and 6,000 thermal anomaly detections
Digital elevation models, alteration zone maps, and ash advisories also available
Data available in several formats (GeoTIFF, jpeg, KML, HDF)

10. ASTER Data Coverage
~3 million scenes
~515 scenes/day

11. Overpass Predictor
Overpass prediction for Bihar, India

12. ASTER Data Products Direct Download On-demand Name Short Name
Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM)
AST_GTM
Expedited Reconstructed Unprocessed Instrument Data
AST_L1AE
Expedited Routine Registered At-Sensor Radiance
AST_L1BE
Precision Terrain Corrected
AST_L1T
Direct Download
Name
Short Name
Reconstructed Unprocessed Instrument Data
AST_L1A
Registered At-Sensor Radiance
AST_L1B
Surface Emissivity
AST_05
Surface Reflectance
AST_07, AST_07XT
Surface Kinetic Temperature
AST_08
Surface Radiance
AST_09, AST_09XT, AST_09T
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (scene-based)
AST14DEM
Orthorectified Register At-Sensor Radiance
AST14OTH
Orthorectified Radiance and DEM
AST14DMO
On-demand

13. Expedited Data Products
Expedited L1A Reconstructed Unprocessed Instrument Data (AST_L1AE)
Expedited L1B Registered Radiance at the Sensor (AST_L1BE) 
HDF-EOS format; UTM Projection
Covers ~60 km x 60 km
Typically available for download within an hour of acquisition

14. More about Expedited Data
Data components
Registration quality is likely to be lower and may vary from scene to scene
Data do not contain the VNIR aft-viewing band
Data do not have short-term calibration for the TIR sensor
Data availability
Level 1A and higher level products are available within 72 hours
Available in the archive as expedited datasets for 30 days
Maple Fire, Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA
Acquired at 18:13 UTC, L1AE available on Data Pool at 19:16 UTC, L1BE available at 19:18 UTC

15. Data Acquisition Request (DAR) Tool

16. ASTER Emergency Scheduling Interface and Control System (AESICS)
Courtesy of M.N. Lubke

17. Priority Coordination Calendar

18. ASTER L1AE or L1B Direct Download On-Demand Product Ordering
ASTER Data Access
Tool
ASTER L1AE or L1B Direct Download
On-Demand Product Ordering
LP DAAC Data Pool/DAAC2Disk X -
NASA Earthdata Search Client
NASA Reverb
USGS Earth Explorer

19. Questions?