All Earth imagery made up of over 2.95 million individual scenes and covering 99 percent of the planet’s land mass will be made ready for download and access to users everywhere for free.
NASA made the announcement last April 1 – hardly an April Fools’ joke thanks to the instrument called Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) that has been capturing images of the planet since 1999.
And it appears that 16 years’ worth of Earth images is quite a lot to go through.
"We anticipate a dramatic increase in the number of users of our data, with new and exciting results to come," says ASTER science team leader Michael Abrams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
The public will be granted unlimited access to the database of ASTER, a joint initiative of the U.S. space agency with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan. The content of this database ranges from the footprints of a strong tornado in Oklahama and the aftermath of flooding in Pakistan, to California wildfires and eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes.
While users could previously access ASTER’s digital topographic maps online for free, they had to pay METI for ordering other data products of the instrument, which has already exceeded its expected five-year lifespan and continues to observe Earth.
Acquiring images in visible and thermal infrared wavelengths at spatial resolutions of up to 300 feet, ASTER creates detailed maps of Earth’s land surface temperature, elevation, and reflectance. Its data cover 83 degrees north latitude to 83 degrees south, with a single ASTER scene looking downward spanning a ground area of 37 by 37 miles.
Two two-dimensional images form a three-dimensional effect of depth through ASTER’s telescopes and near-infrared spectral band. And the high spectral resolution along with broad coverage arm scientists from various fields with critical information.
Applications of these ASTER data include monitoring volcanic activity, tracking crop stress and thermal pollution, following glacial advances, looking at the decline of coral reefs, and mapping soil and geological surface temperatures.
Some noteworthy captures include a comparison of North Korea’s vegetation from 2002 to 2015, when it experienced one of its worst droughts; Venice, Italy’s 120 islands and 400 bridges that look intricate from space; the “Mars-like” terrain of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica; and the changing glaciers of Alaska.
Users worldwide can access ASTER images online by visiting Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center and METI AIST Data Archive System.
