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Description
The AST_05 Version 3 data product was decommissioned on December 15, 2025. Users are encouraged to use the AST_05 Version 4 data product.
The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Surface Emissivity (AST_05) is produced using the Temperature/Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm for the five Thermal Infrared (TIR) 90 meter bands, acquired during the day or night. The product is comprised of per-pixel emissivity measurements generated over land in addition to embedded metadata and quality assurance data planes.
The ASTER L2 Surface Emissivity data product is only available through NASA's Earthdata Search. The ASTER Order Instructions provide step-by-step directions for ordering this product.
Known Issues
Data acquisition gaps: On November 28, 2024, one of Terra's power-transmitting shunt units failed. As a result, there was insufficient power to maintain functionality of the ASTER instrument. ASTER resumed acquisitions for the VNIR bands on January 18, 2025, and for the TIR bands on April 15, 2025. Users should note the data gap in ASTER acquisitions from November 28, 2024, through January 16, 2025, for VNIR observations, and a gap from November 28, 2024, through April 15, 2025, for TIR acquisitions.
Processing Improvements/Changes
The Science Scalable Scripts-based Science Processor for Missions (S4PM) Version 3.4 algorithm, which is used to generate L2 Product Generation Executables (PGEs), is relying on a new ancillary input for atmospheric parameters as of December 18, 2024. Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) is global atmospheric reanalysis that combines remote sensing observations and interactions with the climate system. It will be one of the primary ozone and water vapor, pressure, and temperature inputs for L2 PGEs. MERRA-2 will provide a finer geographic resolution grid since it is a 3-dimensional, 3-hourly data collection with 50-km (latitudinal direction) spatial resolution.
The fallback options for L2 PGEs are as follows:
Ozone: [TOVS Ozone (OZ_DLY ) > AURA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (AURAOMI) > Total Ozone Analysis from Stratospheric and Tropospheric (TOAST) > Earth Probe-Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EPTOMS)] or [MERRA-2] > National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) > Climatology
Water Vapor, Pressure, and Temperature: [MOD07_L2] or [MERRA-2] > NCEP/GDAS > Climatology
Caveat: The temporal range for MERRA-2 covers 1980 to present; however, there is latency of ~3 weeks after the end of a month. Hence, NCEP/GDAS > Climatology fallback sequence will be applied for on-demand requests that fall outside of MERRA-2's temporal range or if the data is not science grade.
As of December 15, 2021, the LP DAAC has implemented changes to ASTER PGE Version 3.4, which will affect all ASTER Level 2 on-demand products. Changes include:
Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) has been added as one of the ancillary ozone inputs for any observations made after May 27, 2020. The sequence of fallbacks for ozone will remain the same.
Toolkit has been updated from Version 5.2.17 to 5.2.20. Users may notice minor differences between the two versions. Differences may include minuscule changes in digital numbers around the peripheral of the granule and boundaries of a cloud for Surface Reflectance and Surface Radiance (AST07 and AST09) QA Data Plane depending on the Operating System and libraries being used by the user to process the data.
Additionally, Climatology, which is one of the inputs for Ozone and Moisture, Temperature and Pressures (MTP) will be removed from the Earthdata Order Form. It has been observed that PGEs generated with Climatology as an input yield noticeable differences statistically during image and spectral analysis. Climatology will continue to be used as the final default if neither of the first two selectable options are available for Ozone and MTP. Users can check the OPERATIONALQUALITYFLAGEXPLANATION field in the metadata or the output file for atmospheric parameters that were applied.
Starting June 23, 2021, radiometric calibration coefficient Version 5 (RCC V5) will be applied to newly observed ASTER data and archived ASTER data products. Details regarding RCC V5 are described in the following journal article.
Tsuchida, S., Yamamoto, H., Kouyama, T., Obata, K., Sakuma, F., Tachikawa, T., Kamei, A., Arai, K., Czapla-Myers, J.S., Biggar, S.F., and Thome, K.J., 2020, Radiometric Degradation Curves for the ASTER VNIR Processing Using Vicarious and Lunar Calibrations: Remote Sensing, v. 12, no. 3, at https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030427.
Version Description
The following changes and improvements were implemented for ASTER Version 3 data products: (1) Geometric correction to account for Earth's rotation angle and nutation, (2) Geometric correction for geolocation errors associated with nighttime TIR scenes, and (3) Radiometric correction to account for degradation of onboard calibration lamps.
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
,
Ground Data System, Japan Space Systems, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan (JP/METI/AIST/JSS/GDS)
Concept ID
C3553450393-LPCLOUD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
2
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Emissivity
Citation
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.
Copy Citation
Citation Copied
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. (2001). ASTER Level 2 Emissivity Product [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/AST_05.003 Date Accessed: 2026-05-01
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. “ASTER Level 2 Emissivity Product.” NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2001. doi:10.5067/ASTER/AST_05.003. Date Accessed: 2026-05-01
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. ASTER Level 2 Emissivity Product. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2001, doi:10.5067/ASTER/AST_05.003. Date Accessed: 2026-05-01
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (AST_05), followed by the 3-digit Version Number plus the Date and Time of Acquisition designated as MMDDYYYYHHMMSS (00309102025211129), Date and Time of Processing designated as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS (20250911135121), Unique Processing Identifier (433315), and the Data Format (hdf).
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The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this
dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements
collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on
satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and
model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band
have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the
designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR).
Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill
Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze
the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables.
Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data,
user guide, and/or other product documentation.
For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.