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Description
The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Surface Kinetic Temperature (AST_08) V004 product delivers surface kinetic temperature data derived from the five Thermal Infrared (TIR) bands (Bands 10–14), collected during both daytime and nighttime observations. The AST_08 product has a spatial resolution of 90 meters (m) for the TIR bands. This Level 2 (L2) product is produced using the Temperature/Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm, which processes atmospherically corrected ASTER surface radiance (TIR) data to estimate emissivity and compute temperature. In Version 4, atmospheric correction has been significantly improved by integrating Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) data, enhancing the accuracy of temperature retrievals.
Acquisitions for AST_08 ended on January 16, 2026, at 05:10:45 UTC, when the ASTER TIR instrument was permanently turned off due to power limitations on the Terra spacecraft. More information is available in this NASA Science News Brief.
Known Issues
Level 2 products that are on the international date line/anti-meridian have incorrect bounding coordinates for the UTM zone defined in the file metadata.
Version Description
The following changes and improvements were implemented for ASTER Level 2 Version 4 data products: (1) ASTER V4 uses Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) data as the primary source for atmospheric parameters (ozone, water vapor, pressure, and temperature), improving the precision of emissivity calculations, (2) When MERRA-2 data are unavailable, the product employs Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) data as a backup, with climatology data serving as a final fallback to ensure continuous processing, and (3) Data format has transitioned from legacy HDF-EOS2 to Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG).
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
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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)
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. (2025). ASTER L2 Surface Kinetic Temperature V004 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/AST_08.004 Date Accessed: 2026-05-02
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. “ASTER L2 Surface Kinetic Temperature V004.” NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2025. doi:10.5067/ASTER/AST_08.004. Date Accessed: 2026-05-02
NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. ASTER L2 Surface Kinetic Temperature V004. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2025, doi:10.5067/ASTER/AST_08.004. Date Accessed: 2026-05-02
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (AST_08), followed by the 3-digit Version Number plus the Date and Time of Acquisition designated as MMDDYYYYHHMMSS (00401232021224347), Date and Time of Processing designated as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS (20250912131456), Product Type (SKT), Band/Variable (QA_DataPlane), and the Data Format (tif).
The USGS EROS User Services team is offering an hour-long webinar to share the data, tools, and services available from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.
Sobolewski, Linda, Stenner, Christian, Florea, Lee J., McWethy, Guy, Gomez-Patron, Andrea I., Zorn, Edgar U., Ionescu, Artur, Cartaya, Eduardo, Pflitsch, Andreas
Langsdale, Mary F., Dowling, Thomas P. F., Wooster, Martin, Johnson, James, Grosvenor, Mark J., de Jong, Mark C., Johnson, William R., Hook, Simon J., Rivera, Gerardo
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.
