ASTER has extended life; free ASTER; STARS revamp

[Jeff Kargel]

Dear ASTER users/GLIMS consortium members:

1. Many of you have already renewed your "free ASTER" listings. If not, and if you are a user of no-cost ASTER data, your permissions for receiving no-cost ASTER data will be expiring within a few weeks.  You must renew via  
http://lpdaac.usgs.gov/aster/afd/index.php
Generally the process consists of you filing the application.  Then NASA asks me if you are a GLIMS member.  I am obligated to be very strict about this, so please do not file an application using GLIMS as the justification unless you are an active GLIMS researcher; if you are, then I will approve; if not, I will decline your application.  If I am unsure, I will inquire with you directly.

2. You should be pleased to hear that ASTER has passed a major internal review at NASA and has been given an official extension of its operations for an additional 2 years.  This was never seriously in doubt in my mind, but given that some missions are terminated before they fail, and furthermore that there have been some unusual budgetary decisions lately, it is good news to hear that this extension has been confirmed.  The health of the instrument has been faltering.  SWIR bands 5-9 have been turned on and off, and the likelihood is that soon we will be operating only with VNIR, SWIR band 4, and TIR.  Fortunately, most GLIMS researchers' terrain classifications utilize mainly these bands. 

3. Finally, a redevelopment of GLIMS STARs has been implemented and it seems that so far (since mid June) there has been a higher flow of image acquisitions than we had previously, at least in most regions.  This was the intent of the revamp.  It would be helpful if you would check your areas of interest and see whether quality data are being returned.  There may be a higher incidence of cloudy images, as part of the revamp involved ignoring the automated cloud assessments, which had not been very successful for GLIMS/glacier imaging.  The approach that should have been implemented is one of high persistence in imaging and reimaging, in the hopes that clear-sky images are obtained.  Please report to me your experiences with the last 5 weeks of imaging by ASTER.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kargel