ASTER Resumes Limited Operations

[LP DAAC - jwilson]

On November 28, 2024, at 14:20 UTC, one of Terra's power-transmitting shunt units failed. As a result, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument was put into Safe Mode. After investigation and monitoring of platform battery status, the Terra Flight Operations Team (FOT) determined that there was sufficient power to resume imaging with ASTER’s Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) instrument. The FOT will continue to monitor the power usage, but as a result, ASTER once again began collecting VNIR data on January 17, 2025. As a result, there is a data gap in ASTER acquisitions from November 28, 2024, through January 16, 2025. On March 03, 2025, the LP DAAC released ASTER VNIR-only data from January 17, 2025 – Present.

Please see below for a list of available products for ASTER VNIR-only data.

ASTER Level 1A Reconstructed Unprocessed Instrument Data (AST_L1A)
ASTER Level 1B Registered Radiance at the Sensor (AST_L1B)
ASTER Level 1 Precision Terrain Corrected Registered At-Sensor Radiance (AST_L1T v3 & AST_L1T v3.1)
ASTER Digital Elevation Model (AST14DEM)
ASTER Digital Elevation Model and Orthorectified Registered Radiance at the Sensor (AST14DMO)
ASTER Orthorectified Registered Radiance at the Sensor (AST14OTH)
The following products are unable to be produced for ASTER VNIR-only data using the existing Science Scalable Scripts-based Science Processor for Missions (S4PM) processing system, however the LP DAAC is planning to resolve this issue and produce the data as part of the Final ASTER Processing Campaign (Version 4):

ASTER L2 Surface Reflectance VNIR and SWIR (AST_07)
ASTER L2 Surface Radiance VNIR and SWIR (AST_09)
ASTER data can be accessed using NASA’s Earthdata Search.

Thank you for your patience during the recent Safe Mode event. We offer our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Stay tuned for future updates on the status of ASTER.

Have questions? Contact LP DAAC User Services.
https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/news/aster-resumes-limited-operations/