ASTER watches the worldʹs volcanoes: a new paradigm for volcanological observations from orbit

Onboard NASA Terra spacecraft is one of the most sophisticated earth observing instruments ever flown, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), created as part of a joint project between the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and NASA. This instrument consists of three independent bore-sighted telescopes with 14 channels in the visible, near-infrared, and thermal infrared regions capable of being pointed up to 22.5° off-nadir. In addition, there is an additional backward-looking visible channel telescope for stereo-photogrammetric observations. The spatial resolutions are 15 m/pixel in the visible, 30 m/pixel in the near-IR, and 90 m/pixel at thermal wavelengths, and the swath width is 60 km. ASTER instrument offers unprecedented opportunities for observing volcanoes and their activity from low earth orbit. It is the purpose of this short paper to introduce ASTER to the volcanological community, highlight its capabilities, advantages and limitations, and to show some examples of ASTER data and related analyses. We will also explain how users can readily access ASTER data.