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EVALUATION OF ASTER OPERATION AT THE GROUND DATA SYSTEM
H. Watanabe, Y. Kannari, A.Miura ?
“ Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center
; Forefront Tower Bldg 14th floor, 3-12-1 Kachidoki, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 104-0054; watanabe@ersdac.or.jp
KEY WORDS: ASTER, Remote Sensing, Acquisition, Processing, Internet, Web Service, DEM/DTM
ABSTRACT:
ASTER ( Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer ), which was built by METI ( Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry, Japan ) has been nominally operated for more than four years after the launch in December , 1999. with
cooperation of NASA ( national Aeronautic and Space Administration ) who operates the satellite called Terra . And ASTER has
been acquiring more than 760 thousand scenes of data, and has been generating more than 640 thousand scenes. Currently, ASTER
is being used as one of the standard mid-resolution space borne Earth Observing Remote Sensor worldwide. In fact, more than 1.5
millions of ASTER data were distributed. The authors has been conducting the operation of ASTER and performed evaluation of the
performance of ASTER Ground Data System, based on the experience of the operation. ASTER succeeded in very complicated
operation derived from the user requirement. Major features are as follows: (a) Flexible mission operation involving world weather
forecast, (b) Correction for the misregistration caused by the Hardware constraints, (c) Data set generation including along track
stereo pair which enables DEM generation (d) User friendly internet user interface including easy data search from huge amount of
data set, on line data distribution, credit card payment, so on. (e) Achievement of high accuracy in geometry and radiometry..
1. INTRODUCTION 2. OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF ASTER
ASTER was launched on December 18, 1999 from Vandenberg, 2.1 Mission Operation of ASTER Sensor
California, USA on the platform called Terra (EOS AM-1).
ASTER is a sensor made by the Japanese Instrument Team
funded by METI, and Terra is a platform provided by NASA. Orbit Sun Synchronous
And the operation is performed by the intimate cooperation Loca] time at equator 10:30 a.m. 7% 1 Smin.
between US and Japan and, in both sides, Altitude mne 200:737 km (70S. atequator)
Instrument/Science/Ground System have been cooperating for a Inclination e 2C ISO
better operation... The detailed description on the Operation is La durs (13 rewimionsde days)
described in the literature. Here, only following information is BES Denen nl nl orig 72 kn Mt equae
listed as a summary: Fig. 1 US-Japan Relation, Table 1 :Major Repetition abebrucy RE
Orbit Parameters of Terra, Fig. 2 Basic Specifications. of
ASTER
Table 1 Major Orbit Parameters of Terra Satellite
TERRA
ASTER Mission Operation is conducted by the AOS ( ASTER
Operation Segment ) with the help of SSSG ( Science
Scheduling Support Group ) from ERSDAC and JPL. Every
day, ODS ( One Day Schedule ) is generated, by using the
"Scheduler" which takes into account the ASTER/Terra
restriction ( 8 % duty cycle , XAR Data Base ( data base of all
the data acquisition requests ), spacecraft information (
Planning Aid ), weather forecast of the target area ( GDAS data
ey PER ), the cumulative number of the pointing which is an item to be
^ DAR zo Acdvit
:
Direct Receiving
System
Product ag | par controlled. The output of the scheduler plays a very important
rrotuctetfexeti etc DPR ; pa S ais
= Pry ME —— role to define switch on/off time, pointing angle to maximize
— the priority function defined by the ASTER Science Team.
Pacific Network
Then, generated ODS is sent to EOC ( EOS Operation Center )
in
Fig. 1 Operational Relationship of ASTER between US and
Japan
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