Dear GLIMS colleagues,

This is just an advance notice, a cautionary note similar to what I have issued several times over the lifetime of ASTER. Officially my current ASTER account for GLIMS is due to expire sometime this year, I believe around late April; if my account were to disappear, so would your account for ordering ASTER data at no cost, if it is under the GLIMS umbrella. I have high expectations that my account will be renewed. However, in these days of chaos in the U.S. Federal budget, and just generally with overturning of grants, we all must be prepared for a possible (unlikely) termination of my account. Thus, I urge you to order ASTER images now. Besides, there was a new GLIMS STAR implemented a year ago, and acquisitions of imagery increased in many regions, hopefully including underserved places such as Alaska and the European Alps. So it would be doubly worth looking at and ordering ASTER imagery this winter while we are assured of a no-cost arrangement. Please, limit your order to what you are likely to be analyzing (and glacier-containing scenes only!), but do it in the coming weeks. If your account lapsed, send me a note of that.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey S. Kargel

Department of Hydrology & Water Resources

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ 85742 USA

Email(1) jeffreyskargel@hotmail.com

Email(2) kargel@hwr.arizona.edu

Mobile phone: 520-780-7759