Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Version 4 Product User Guide - V4 User Guide

Oct 13, 2026

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Version 4 Product User Guide describes the ASTER instrument and the LP DAAC role in ingesting, archiving, processing, and distributing ASTER data. It outlines the instrument’s spectral bands, spatial resolutions, and acquisition coverage area, then explains the ASTER Final Processing Campaign and its aim to create static Version 4 collections of selected products. The guide further covers data products, file naming, processing levels, algorithms, quality, improvements, known issues, data access, and contact information.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

1.1 ASTER Overview

1.2 ASTER Final Processing Campaign Overview

2. Data Products

3. Data Characteristics

4. File Naming Conventions

5. ASTER Processing Levels

6. Algorithm Description

7. Quality

8. Improvements

9. Known Issues

10. Data Access

11. Contact Information

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Version 4 Product User Guide April 2025 LP DAAC Project Scientist: Cole Krehbiel Written by Karen Yuan1 and Cole Krehbiel2 Reviewed by Mike Abrams3 1KBR, Inc., contractor to the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. Work performed under USGS contract 140G0121D0001 for LP DAAC4. 2USGS EROS, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA 3Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 4LP DAAC work performed under NASA contract 80GSFC24TA009 Table of Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 2. Data Products………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………….…6 3. Data Characteristics…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 4. File Naming Conventions………………………………………..……………………………………………………………..……8 5. ASTER Processing Levels ………………………………………………………………………………………………..………...10 6. Algorithm Description……………………………………………………………………………..…………………….………….10 7. Quality……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...11 8. Improvements…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11 9. Known Issues…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13 10. Data Access……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13 11. Contact Information………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Version Log History | Revision | Date Updated | Prepared By | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Draft | February 2025 | Karen Yuan | Draft ofASTER
Version 4 User Guide | | Version 1.0 | April 2025 | Karen Yuan | Added QA and additional Metadata Information | | | | | | | | | | | Contacts Users of this guide looking for additional information about ASTER Version 4 may contact the following: Karen Yuan KBR, Inc., contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center 47914 252nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57198 [Email:](Email: yyuan@contractor.usgs.gov)[ ](Email: yyuan@contractor.usgs.gov)[yyuan@contractor.usgs.gov](Email: yyuan@contractor.usgs.gov) Cole Krehbiel USGS EROS 47914 252nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57198 Email: [ckrehbiel@usgs.gov](ckrehbiel@usgs.gov) Phone: 605-594-2682 Bjorn Eng Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109 [Email:](Email: bjorn.t.eng@jpl.nasa.gov)[ ](Email: bjorn.t.eng@jpl.nasa.gov)[bjorn.t.eng@jpl.nasa.gov](Email: bjorn.t.eng@jpl.nasa.gov) 1. Introduction 1.1 ASTER Overview The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is amultispectral imager that was launched on board NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Platform on December 18, 1999, and has been observing and collecting Earth observations for over 25 years. ASTER covers a wide spectral region from visible to thermal infrared, including 14 spectral bands with high spatial, spectral, and radiometric resolution. The spectral band passes are shown in Table 1.1. The wide spectral region is covered by three telescopes,(1) three Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer (VNIR) bands with a spatial resolution of 15 meters (m),(2) six Short Wave Infrared Radiometer (SWIR) bands with a spatial resolution of 30 m and (3) five Thermal Infrared Radiometer (TIR) bands with a spatial resolution of 90 m. Each of the three subsystems has a nadir-pointing telescope, and the VNIR subsystem has an additional backward pointing telescope that is used to see backward in the near infrared spectral band (band 3B) to obtain stereo coverage. Each ASTER acquisition (scene) covers an area of 60 x 60 km. ASTER is a partnership between NASA, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, and Japan Space Systems (J-spacesystems) . The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ingests, archive

FAQs

What is ASTER and what does it measure?

ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is a multispectral imager launched on NASA’s Terra platform that observes visible to thermal infrared wavelengths using 14 spectral bands.

What is the goal of the ASTER Final Processing Campaign for Version 4?

The campaign reprocesses the ASTER archive using improved atmospheric inputs for Level 2 product generation and updated GCPs and DEMs, producing static Version 4 collections of selected ASTER products for the full archive.

Which parts of the guide explain how to find and use the data?

The guide covers data products, file naming conventions, processing levels, algorithm descriptions, quality and known issues, plus data access and contact information for additional support.

Oct 13, 2026

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