Remarks
!!! We will terminate ASTER Products Distribution Service in March 2016 although we have been providing ASTER Products since November 20, 2000. !!! ASTER is a cooperative effort between NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI), with the collaboration of scientific and industry organizations in both countries. The ASTER instrument provides the next generation in remote sensing imaging capabilities when compared to the older Landsat Thematic Mapper and Japan's JERS-1 OPS scanner. ASTER captures high spatial resolution data in 14 bands, from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelengths, and provides stereo viewing capability for digital elevation model creation. As the "zoom lens" for Terra, ASTER data are used by other Terra and space-borne instruments for validation and calibration. The ASTER Project consists of two parts, each having a Japanese and a U.S. component. Mission operations are split between Japan Space Systems (J-spacesystems) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the U.S. J-spacesystems oversees monitoring instrument performance and health, developing the daily schedule command sequence, processing Level 0 data to Level 1, and providing higher level data processing, archiving, and distribution. The JPL ASTER project provides scheduling support for U.S. investigators, calibration and validation of the instrument and data products, coordinating the U.S. Science Team, and maintaining the science algorithms. The joint Japan/U.S. ASTER Science Team has about 40 scientists and researchers.