A calibration methodology for continental scale mapping using ASTER imagery

Since the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was launched in 1999 the sensor has acquired an extensive coverage of the Earthʹs surface. The ASTER archive has great potential for a variety of regional and continental scale studies. ASTER is particularly useful for geological applications and provides the potential to derive continental scale surface mineral abundance and composition maps providing a new and valuable information source for the resource exploration industry. An initiative to produce one such set of continental scale surface mineral abundance and composition maps for Australia from ASTER L1B VNIR, SWIR radiance at sensor data and ASTER L2 surface emissivity data was undertaken. The project successfully solved a number of technical challenges. This paper describes the processing and calibration methodology, which was developed to generate continental-scale mosaics of reflectance and emissivity from ASTERʹs nine reflected and five emitted bands.