H. Tsu of ERSDAC, ASTER Science Team Leader, welcomed the participants and opened the Plenary Session. E. Paylor of the EOS Program at NASA Headquarters reported on the current EOS Program status, particularly the EOS rebaselining process. Y. Miyazaki of the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ) updated the status of the ASTER Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Project Information Plan (PIP), and International Coordination Working Group (ICWG). He said that only some legal issues remain to be solved in the MOU. Y. Yamaguchi of GSJ laid out the issue of the ASTER standard data product definition.
M. Kudoh of JAROS presented updates on the ASTER instrument development status. The Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) of the ASTER system and subsystems were completed in late October to early November of 1994. One problem reported is the delay of the Thermal Infrared (TIR) scanner development that may affect the schedule of the ASTER System integration and test. S. Lambros of GSFC and F. Sakuma of National Research Laboratory of Metrology (NRLM) summarized the results of the ASTER Interface CDR meeting and ASTER Calibration Peer Review meeting held in the previous week, respectively.
E. Chang of GSFC reviewed the EOSDIS system status. T. Kawakami of ERSDAC presented the schedule and status of the Japanese ASTER Ground Data System (GDS) development. Selection of the GDS contractors was made in November 1994, and the GDS System Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is scheduled for June 1995. M. Pniel of JPL reported on the ASTER Product Generation System (PGS) update. He said that the data products will be converted to Beta production software by August 1995.
Y. Yamaguchi of GSJ and D. Nichols of JPL summarized the discussions made at the ad hoc meeting of the Operations and Mission Planning Working Group (OMPWG) in September 1994. D. Nichols also introduced the ASTER Mosaic Home Page recently built by the JPL ASTER Project. B. Bailey of EDC proposed options for the production of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) as ASTER standard data products. F. Palluconi of JPL reported on the EOS plans for an at-launch DEM based upon the discussions at the NASA EOS DEM Working Group.
H. Tsu, ASTER Science Team Leader, laid out issues to be addressed in the meeting. He identified the key topics to be algorithm updating and validation planning as an Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) follow-up. He also emphasized the importance of operational scenario updating and timely input of the users' requirements to the ASTER GDS and EOSDIS. A. Kahle of JPL, U.S. Science Team Leader, agreed with these points and showed a similar list of issues such as validation plans, lunar calibration, Long Term Instrument Plan (LTIP), science requirements for mission operations, and the benefits of ASTER data to other EOS AM-1 instruments.
The second half of the first plenary session was devoted to the detailed reports from the ASTER instrument developers. These are summaries of the instrument CDRs in late October to early November 1994. K. Ogikubo of NEC, the ASTER Instrument System contractor, reported the integration and test plan for the ASTER System Engineering Model (EM). Some questions and requirement issues were raised about the data acquisition plan at the time of the EM integration and test. The discussions of the splinter sessions on the second to fourth days were summarized by each working group chairperson at the second plenary session in the afternoon of the fourth day.
T. Takashima of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), Atmospheric Correction Working Group, reviewed the updates of the atmospheric correction algorithms and the validation plans. The surface and cloud adjacency effects are currently under investigation. It was agreed to continue studies on using MISR aerosol product information and on deve-loping a climate model correction algorithm based upon the NMC grid-point data archive.
G. Geller of JPL, Level 1 Processing Working Group, said that it is necessary to clarify the differences between U.S. and Japan regarding user-supplied input parameters such as map projections, Ground Control Points (GCPs), and resam-pling methods. The Japanese side will respond to his draft idea of the Level 1 data product structure.
F. Sakuma of NRLM, Radiometric Calibration Working Group, reviewed the discussions of concerns raised at the Calibration Peer Review. It was agreed to prepare a final statement on lunar calibration for ASTER and to provide suggestions for use of external sources for the ASTER System test.
Y. Yamaguchi of GSJ, Operations and Mission Planning Working Group, said that there was much discussion about the contents of two documents, the Functional Requirements on Mission Operation (FRMO) for ASTER GDS and the Long Term Instrument Plan (LTIP). The working group members expressed concerns with loss of the "quick-look" capability in EOSDIS.
S. Rokugawa of the University of Tokyo Temperature-Emissivity (T-E) Separation Working Group, reported that the "flexible integrated algorithm," having the merits of various different methods, was adopted as a single common method for T-E separation. It was also agreed to continue to make a detailed validation plan.
S. Rokugawa, Airborne Sensor Working Group, summarized the availability of recently acquired airborne data that can be used for the ASTER algorithm development and validation. They include the Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS), the Italian Multispectral Infrared and Visible Imaging Spectrometer (MIVIS), the Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS), the Airborne ASTER Simulator, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organi-zation's (CSIRO's) airborne CO 2 laser data.
M. Kishino of The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Oceanography, Limnology, Lake and Sea Ice Working Group, presented the prioritization of global and regional mapping areas of interest to them. The algorithm development status for water surface temperature and for aquatic plant monitoring was also discussed at this working group.
Y. Yamaguchi of GSJ, Geology Working Group, reviewed the regional monitoring proposals by the working group members, the algorithm development status, the validation test site candidates, and data compilation for the global prioritization map from a geological point of view.
Y. Ninomiya of GSJ, Spectral Library Committee, said that it is necessary to survey the availability of existing spectral data bases. It was agreed to collect feedback from the Science Team members about the library attributes needed for their work and to exchange the spectral data between Japan and the U.S.
Y. Yasuoka of National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Ecosystem and Landsurface Climatology Working Group, reported the test site selection and the algorithm development activities for the data products such as vegetation and soil indices, coral reef, and evapotranspiration. He emphasized that the ASTER data with an order-of-magnitude better spatial resolution than MODIS can contribute to an investigation of subpixel variation of MODIS data and to process studies for land-atmosphere interaction with MODIS.
Y. Miyazaki of GSJ, Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Working Group, said that the working group will coordinate the activities related to final definition of the ASTER DEM standard product and development of ASTER DEM production facilities, and also the activities related to GCP library development. It was agreed to cooperate in compilation of pre-launch global DEMs.
H. Watanabe of Japex Geoscience Institute, Geometric Working Group, summarized the issues discussed: the geometric calibration methodology, engineering model measurements of subsystem thermal distortion of pointing, the jitter effect measurement, the Shortware Infrared (SWIR) parallax correction, the inter-telescope registration accuracy, and candidates for in-flight geometric calibration test sites.
Y. Yamaguchi of GSJ, Higher Level Data Product Working Group, reviewed the status of the ASTER standard data products. He said that on-going actions for all the ASTER Science Team members are to continue to refine validation plans, to look for areas of mutual cooperation among the ASTER team members and other instrument teams, and to better define the purposes of the test sites.
On November 18, a one-day workshop entitled "Remote sensing in volcanology and vegetation environment" was held in cooperation with the scientists of Kagoshima University. After two introductory presentations by H. Tsu and T. Kawakami of ERSDAC, four papers on volcanological applications and five papers on environmental studies using remote sensing techniques were presented. T. Yano of Kagoshima University gave general comments on these papers at the end, and A. Kahle of JPL made a closing address to thank the Japanese Team for arranging the meeting. The next ASTER Science Team meeting will be held May 22-26 in Flagstaff, Arizona, the home town of the Astro-geology Division of the U.S. Geological Survey.