OVERVIEW OF DEM PRODUCT GENERATED BY USING ASTER DATA 
Mitsuharu Tokunaga, Seiichi Hara 
Central Computer Services Co., Ltd. 
6-41-10 Kameido, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136 Japan 
Voice +81-3-5626-7739, FAX +81-5626-7792, Email toku @ccs.co.jp 
Yoshinori Miyazaki 
Geological Survey of Japan 
1-1-3 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305 Japan 
Manabu Kaku 
Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center 
3-12-1, Kachidoki, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 Japan 
Commission IV, Working Group 4 
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, Production, DEM/DTM, Simulation, Accuracy 
ABSTRACT 
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of the instrument boarded on 
EOS-AM1, will be launched by NASA, USA on June, 1998. The ASTER instrument has developed by Ministry of 
International Trade and Industry of Japan, based on the requirement of ASTER team constituted with Japanese and 
American scientists. 
DEM working group of Japan's ASTER science team defined the general specification of DEM products, and has been 
developing the algorithm of DEM generation. The DEM products generated by the algorithm will be distributed through 
ASTER ground data system (ASTER GDS) that has been developing by Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center 
(ERSDAC) of Japan. In this paper, We disclose the specification, contents, accuracy of the DEM products. 
ASTER DEM products will be provided to 2 type products called XYZ set and Z set. XYZ set is consisted of header, 
relative DEM, Quality flags ( correlation value, abnormal value, water and cloud area ). Z set is consisted of the 30m 
grided DEM made from XYZ set. Relative DEM means elevation data generated by not using GCP, and derived from 
ASTER stereo pair image using stereo matching method. 
We made ASTER simulation image data from JERS1/OPS data and calculated relative DEM using simulation data. As a 
result, the relative DEM was generated as the accuracy of 12.5m R.M.S. 
1. ASTER INSTRUMENT 
1.1 Spacecraft Parameters 
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and 
Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of the instrument 
boarded on EOS-AM! platform, will be launched by NASA, 
USA on June, 1998. 
he spececraft parameters shows in table 1. 
Table 1 Orbit Parameters 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Orbit Sun Synchronous 
Cycle 16 days 
Period a orbit 98.9 min. 
Altitude 705Km ( at equator ) 
Inclination 98.2 degree 
Orbit Position Knowledge 150m (3s ) 
  
  
1.2 ASTER Instrument 
The ASTER instrument was developed by Ministry of 
International Trade and Industry of Japan based on the 
requirement of ASTER team constituted with Japanese 
and American scientists. 
The ASTER is consisted of The Visible and Near Infrared 
Radiometer (VNIR), The Short Wavelength Infrared 
Radiometer (SWIR) and The Thermal Infrared Radiometer 
(TIR). Especially, VNIR has the following features for DEM 
generation. 
(1)the stereoscopic capability in the along track direction 
(2)the stereoscopic viewers are observed by nadir and 
backward 
(3)Base to Height Ratio (B/H) is fixed 0.6. 
(4)Ground resolution is 15m. 
(b)the backward viewing detector has tilt angle on 1.33 
degree from along track direction. So the corresponding 
area with nadir image and backward image is made sure of 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996