ASTERAdvanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
Terra
Instrument ID
ASTERSkip to content
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Summary ​
ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is an operational multispectral instrument operated by NASA, METI, Japan Space Systems on Terra. It is associated with a satellite platform and has public data availability.
NOTE
ASTER includes separate VNIR, SWIR, and TIR subsystems. B3N is nadir-looking and B3B is backward-looking for along-track stereoscopic observations. The SWIR subsystem is unavailable. The TIR subsystem was permanently turned off on 2026-01-16 because of Terra power limitations. VNIR operations resumed on 2026-02-09 and remain active, which is reflected by the operational status.
Quick Facts
Instrument idASTER
NameAdvanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
AcronymASTER
Typemultispectral
Platform typesatellite
PlatformTerra
OperatorNASA, METI, Japan Space Systems
Start date1999-12-18
Statusoperational
Availabilitypublic
Spectral Characteristics
Total bands15
Wavelength range560-11300 nm
Bandwidth range40-700 nm
Ground sampling distance15-90 m
Imaging
Swath Width60
Explore it with xeo ​
python
import xeo
instrument = xeo.instruments.ASTER
# Extract metadata
metadata = {
"id": instrument.id,
"name": instrument.name,
"acronym": instrument.acronym,
"type": instrument.type,
"platform_type": instrument.platform_type,
"platform": instrument.platform,
"operator": instrument.operator,
"start_date": instrument.start_date,
"end_date": instrument.end_date,
"status": instrument.status,
"availability": instrument.availability,
}
# Get the bands as a pandas DataFrame (returns None if it is not available)
instrument.bands()
# Get the Spectral Response Function as a pandas DataFrame (returns None if it is not available)
instrument.srf()
# Check the available extensions
print(instrument.extension_names)
for name, extension in instrument.extensions.items():
print(name, "->", list(extension))