The 14th Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Science Team Meeting

--Toru Kawakami (kawakami@ersdac.or.jp),
ERSDAC (Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center)

The 14th Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Science Team Meeting

The 14th ASTER Science Team Meeting was held December 9-12, 1997, at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho, Tokyo, Japan. There were approximately 100 participants representing the ASTER Science Team, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ASTER Science Project, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), Japan Resources Observation Systems Organization (JAROS), the ASTER Ground Data System (GDS) Project, the instrument vendors, and the Japanese algorithm development contractors. The four-day meeting was composed of two plenary sessions and several individual Working Group meetings.

Plenary I, Tuesday Morning, December 9

H. Tsu (Geological Survey of Japan, GSJ), the ASTER Science Team Leader, welcomed the participants and opened the Plenary Session.

Y. Yamaguchi (Nagoya University) reported on recent Science Team activities and status.

M. Kudoh (JAROS) reported on the ASTER and Spacecraft Integration and Test (I&T) status. He said that the bus subsystems and integration of all instruments were completed in early November. The ASTER Initial Comprehensive Performance Test and ASTER Special Test were performed in mid-October 1997. The thermal vacuum test is planned for January 1998 and will take approximately one month. Following the Bench Acceptance Test (BAT), the ASTER instrument itself has been performing well at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space (LMMS).

M. Pniel (JPL ASTER Science Project) summarized the EOSDIS Status. He said that:

• The EOSDIS connections to the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Toronto for MOPITT are scheduled to be operational in January.
• Polar ground station development activities are on schedule for contingency support of AM-1 launch and operations.
• Flight Operation Segment delivered Release B in September and Release B patch December 17 to correct performance problems and add missing functions.
• Mini-EDOS (EOS Data and Operations System) at Valley Forge is routing science data produced during spacecraft I&T to all instrument teams except ASTER.

H. Watanabe (ERSDAC) presented the current status of the ASTER GDS. He presented the major milestones of the U.S.-Japan meetings especially focused on the GDS-EOSDIS I/F meetings up to that point, and talked about the schedules of prelaunch activities, interface documents, and hardware procurement.

Activity Report

F. Palluconi (JPL) summarized the November 1997 EOS Investigators Working Group (IWG) Meeting discussions. He said that:

• EOSDIS will support processing to Level 2 for 25% of AM-1 data in year one, 50% in year two, 75% in year three, and 100% in year four.
• EOS may make requests to ASTER for coverage of specific sites on a fast-response basis.
• The EOS Project would like to increase EOS visibility through the release of new and interesting science results as soon after launch as practical and then on a regular and continuing basis.
• For the AM-1 platform, all the major system tests remain to be completed, but a 1998 launch is still possible although there is no schedule margin. The schedule will be clearer once the system thermal vacuum test is successfully completed.

A. Kahle (JPL), the U.S. ASTER Science Team Leader, summarized the discussions at the SWAMP Meeting in November 1997, including:

• The results of the thermal vacuum test will be issued in January 1998.
• The EOS AM-1 Project is still on schedule (but a tight schedule) for launch on June 30, 1998.
• MODIS was delivered to Valley Forge and is now on the spacecraft.
• JGR Special Issue on AM-1 is in press.
• EOS Validation Plan concerns.

Y. Yamaguchi (Nagoya University) summarized the Operations and Mission Planning Working Group (OMPWG) ad hoc meeting that was held September 17-19, 1997, at ERSDAC in Tokyo. The main topics of the meeting included:

• All-Data-Acquisition-Requests (xAR) resource allocation and tracking
  • Data Acquisition Request (DAR) allocation plans for various user categories were agreed to. They were 40,000 km² per one proposal by an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) user, and 160,000 km² for an ASTER Science team member.
• ASTER AO status
  • More than 100 letters of interest had been received by September 16, 1997, in response to the Japanese pre-announcements.
  • Formal Japanese AO materials will be distributed in February 1998.
  • In the U.S., the ASTER user authorization site on WWW is finished.
• ASTER Long Term Instrument Plan (LTIP)
  • Already signed by H. Tsu (ASTER Science Team Leader), A. Kahle (U.S. ASTER Science Team Leader), M. King (EOS Senior Project Scientist, GSFC) and Y. Kaufman (EOS AM-1 Project Scientist).
  • Scheduler and Instrument Support Terminal (IST) development status.
  • The scheduler was delivered to GDS at the end of November 1997.
  • The IST schedule and status were reported.

M. Pniel reported on the action items of the OMPWG ad hoc meeting.

H. Sekine (Mitsubishi Research Institute) reviewed the Science Team Acquisition Request (STAR) collection status. He said that collection of STARs for the Initial Check Out (ICO) Phase will be completed by February 1, 1998.

B. Molloy (JPL) presented the U.S. STAR Collection status. He said that:

• 226 observation requests have been received from more than 90 researchers from 20 countries.
• STAR Committee evaluation is underway.
  • Final assessment due mid-January 1998.
  • All approved early mission STARs to be entered via Web tool by January 15 for final transfer to GDS by February 1, 1998.
• The Announcement of Opportunity for submission of requests for Early Mission STARs was made in mid-October.

S. Tsuchida (GSJ) and H. Tonooka (Ibaraki University) described the plan for the EOS Field Campaign that was held December 13-14, 1997 at the Tsukuba area and on Kasumigaura Lake, Ibaraki, Japan.

A. Kahle discussed the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGARS) EOS AM-1 Special Issue (ASTER papers).

T. Kawakami (ASTER Science Project Manager, ERSDAC) presented the URL address of the Japanese ASTER Science Server at ERSDAC that includes the ASTER User's Guide, AO, ASTER News, and so forth.

Y. Yamaguchi asked each working group to discuss the following issues:

• Algorithm Validation Plan and Initial Check-Out (ICO) Phase.
• After-launch Algorithm Update Plan.
• STAR collection.

I. Sato (GSJ) asked all Science team members to give him their comments on the User's Guide.

The first plenary session was followed by a short tour to observe the ASTER GDS Facility at ERSDAC.

Plenary II, Friday Afternoon, December 12

Y. Yamaguchi summarized the discussion of the STAR committee. The topics of the discussion included:

• STARs during Initial Checkout Phase (ICO).
  • Data acquisition for global mapping will be started in the ICO Phase.
  • All the parameters have been fixed and will be transferred to GDS soon.
• STAR proposals during normal operations phase.
• xAR Collection Schedule.
  • Collection schedule was changed to require proposals by January 25, 1998 and xAR parameters by March 1, 1998.
  • STARs will be accepted anytime before and throughout the mission period.
  • DARs will be input through IMS after July 1998.
  • DARs will be scheduled only in the normal operation phase.

H. Kayanne (Tokyo University) presented the agenda and a summary of the Ecosystem Working Group meeting. The presentation included:

• Algorithm development for ecosystem mapping and surface heat fluxes.
• Ecosystems WG STARs.

M. Abrams (JPL) presented the agenda and a summary of the Oceanography Working Group meeting. The presentation included:

• Discussion about collaboration with the MODIS Ocean Team for sea-surface temperature.
• Status of Oceanography WG STAR.
• Future Oceanography meetings.
• Algorithm for a special product.
• Preliminary report of 1997 Lake Shinji Airborne/Field Campaign.
• Turbidity analysis in Tokyo Bay by Landsat/TM after atmospheric correction.

M. Urai (GSJ) presented the agenda and a summary of the Geology Working Group meeting. The presentation included:

• Volcanoes for monitoring, including an IDS team request.
• Definition of Global Mapping acquisition time for non-desert areas.
• Volcano Map Products.
• STAR status.

S. Hook (JPL) presented the agenda and a summary of the Airborne Working Group meeting.

S. Hook also reported on the agenda and summary of the Spectral Library Committee meeting. The presentation included:

• An update on the U.S. ASTER spectral library.
• An update on the Japanese ASTER spectral measurements, which will be available via the WWW in the near future.
• Recent spectral measurements of vegetation, rocks, and minerals.

H. Fujisada (Science University of Tokyo) summarized discussions about the Level-1 Algorithm Development Status, the Geometric Validation Plan, and the Ground Control Point (GCP) Library in the Geometric/Level-1 Working Group meeting. His presentation included:

• Level-1 Algorithm/Software Development Status.
  • Header Information Update: New version (Ver. 2.3) of L1 Data Product Specification was released and distributed.
• Browse Header Information Update.
• Parallax Correction Algorithm Update.
  • Evaluation results using the 1-km coarse Digital Elevation Model (DEM): The accuracy is about 0.3 pixels (3 sigma).
• Intertelescope Registration Algorithm Update.
• Geometric Validation Plan Update - Japanese Plan.
• Geometric Validation Plan Update - U.S. Plan.
• Observation Plan for Geometric Validation.
• GCP Library Preparation Plan Update - U.S. Plan.
  • Report of SWAMP GCP Working Group that will fund preparation of control.
• GCP Library Preparation Plan Update - Japanese Plan.

S. Rokugawa (Tokyo University) presented the agenda and a summary of the Temperature-Emissivity Separation (TES) Working Group meeting. The topics included:

• TES algorithm.
  • Comparison between Japanese and U.S. TES code results based on the various materials shows very small differences.
  • Japanese science TES was transferred to GDS and is now under implementation.
  • EOSDIS TES code updated to conform with the latest Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) version 2.3 and Quality Assurance (QA) code is now in place.
  • U.S. side adopted emissivity-ratio rather than radiance-ratio in TES Code.
• QA status.
  • Japanese side proposed to exchange the User's Guide information relevant to QA items.
• Field campaign short report.
• Milestone and Initial Check Out program.
  • TES parameter tuning, if necessary, will be done from 40 days to 105 days after launch and will be updated after 18 months.
  • TES algorithm validation includes TES parameter tuning, parameter transfer to GDS, if necessary, and some field tests synchronized with satellite.
  • Long-term TES parameter update scenario.

Y. Yamaguchi reported on the discussions at the OMPWG meeting. His presentation included:

• xAR cancellation procedure and Not-OK to OK flag change.
• User Categories Issues, User ID Update.
• Japan AO and U.S. User Authorization Status.
  • Formal AO announcement (Japan) will be made in January 1998.
• xAR Collection Status.
• Cloud Prediction Data Issues.
• Mission Guideline Status.
• Mission Procedure Outline.
• Mission Analysis Tool (MAT) Status
  • Ver. 0 (query generation and result display only) will be completed in March 1998.
  • Scheduler Status.
  • Operation Simulator Status.
  • IST Status.

M. Pniel reported on the OMPWG Action Item status.

F. Palluconi (JPL) presented the agenda and a summary of the Atmospheric Correction Working Group meeting. The topics covered included:

• Status of Level 2 software.
  • Ver. 2 has been delivered to U.S. scientists and will be delivered to the Earth Resources Observation System (EROS) Data Center (EDC) in February.
  • Algorithm changes (as long as they are small) are due February 1, 1998.
• VNIR/SWIR Results from 1997 Lunar Lake Campaign.
  • The summary of June field campaign results for the VNIR/SWIR.
  • Surface reflectance retrievals agreed to better than 0.01 in reflectance at both low (0.08) and high (0.5) reflectance.
• TIR Results from 1997 Railroad Valley Campaign.
  • TIR found up to 4 K difference between the radiometric and bulk temperatures at Lockes Ponds.

K. Arai (Saga University) reported on the agenda and a summary of the Radiometric Calibration Working Group (CAL WG) meeting. The presentation of the WG included:

• Calibration Plans for each subsystem in the initial checkout period and Prelaunch Calibration Coefficients.
• Destriping issue & Proto Flight Model (PFM) Test.
• Subsystem Level of Proto Flight Test (PFT) data and Prelaunch Calibration Coefficient.
  • The results of the VNIR test showed that the photodetector output had overstepped the caution limitation. The Instrument Team is investigating the causes of this result.
  • Some detector anomalies of the SWIR Band 6 were detected in the Lamp-A calibration data. The Instrument Team is investigating the causes of this result.
• Preflight Cross Calibration Activities.
• Lunar Calibration & Results from PFM Test Data Analysis.
  • Candidate observation dates of September 4 or October 2, 1998, were proposed for Lunar Calibration.
• Status of Radiometric Calibration Coefficient Generation Method.
• Detailed Report on the previous Joint Field Campaign.
• Field Campaign Plan in Tsukuba, December 13-14, 1997.
• Activities and Operation Plan in Initial Checkout including calibration test sites.
• ATBD revision.
• STAR status.
• User's Guide.
• Status of Radiometric Validation Plan Document.
• Status of IEEE Special Issue.
• New Action Special Validation of stray light effect on Cross Calibration Method.

H. Murakami (Geographical Survey Institute) presented a summary of the Digital Elevation Model Working Group (DEMWG) meeting. The presentation included:

• ATBD progress report.
• Early mission phase target for DEM validation sites.
• Status of U.S. DEM software/hardware Request for Proposal (RFP) and production plans.
• DEMWG validation site presentations.
• DEM processing time of Japanese algorithm.

I. Sato (GSJ) reported on the agenda and a summary of the Higher Level Data Product Working Group (HLDPWG) meeting. His presentation included:

• ASTER User's Guide.
  • Will be available to AST Science Team members for evaluation after the Science Server is available (January, 1998).
  • U.S. will begin development in the March time frame, available to public in the October 1998 time frame.
• Validation Data Base update.
  • Reported on the current status and development in FY 1997.
• General Discussion.
  • The flow of Expedited Data for HLDP validation. Need to know the nature of Expedited Data and how it is different from L1A and L1B data.
  • Usage of L1 product with Ver. 0.4 and Ver. 1.0 parameter files. Ver. 0.4 is principally for Preci-pitation Radar (PR) product generation. Ver. 1.0 is formal for HLDP algorithm validation.

M. Pniel invited the attendees to the next ASTER Science Team meeting, which will be held in the U.S. in conjunction with the launch of AM-1.

S. Machida (ERSDAC) explained the logistics for the Field Campaign in the Tsukuba area.

The meeting was closed by A. Kahle, who called this a significant and productive meeting in which many issues were resolved both in the scheduled sessions and in off-line splinter meetings.