The 9th ASTER Science Team meeting was held at Flagstaff, AZ, May 22-26, 1995. The purposes of the meeting included addressing outstanding science and operations issues and furthering mission planning efforts. Over 80 attendees included representatives of the ASTER Science Team, the JPL ASTER Science Project, the EOS Project at GSFC, the EROS Data Center (EDC), the Landsat Project, Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), Japan Resources Observation System (JAROS), the instrument developers, the ASTER Ground Data System (GDS), and EOSDIS contractors. The week-long meeting comprised opening and closing plenary sessions and meetings of all of the Working Groups.
A. Kahle, ASTER U.S. Science Team Leader, opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees. She reviewed the recent activities and plans of the U.S. Science Team. H. Tsu, ASTER Science Team Leader, reported that there have been many meetings to finalize the ASTER Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Hopefully, the agreement will be concluded in the autumn.
H. Tsu reported on the status of JERS-1. He said that it's now been in orbit for 3 years. Approximately 80,000 image scenes have been taken, with about 20,000 cloud-free scenes, covering 20 to 30% of the land surface.
S. Hook reviewed the First ASTER Pre-Flight Calibration Experiment at Lake Tahoe, CA. The purpose of the experiment was to develop a methodology for assessing the in-flight calibration of the ASTER thermal bands and to provide the necessary measurements to enable a vicarious calibration. He presented examples of data acquired on the land and the water during the experiment. Surprisingly, a 1.5 degree C range in temperatures was recorded on the lake surface, perhaps due to differential heating.
A. Gillespie reported on temperature/emissivity (T/E) status. He said that at the previous Science Team meeting the Working Group (WG) had produced a single integrated T/E separation algorithm, based largely on the work of S. Rokugawa and T. Matsunaga. The new T/E separation algorithm has been evaluated over Hawaii (lava flow down to and into the ocean) and Castaic Lake.
Jim Irons, Deputy Landsat Project Scientist, reviewed the history, objectives, and capabilities of the Landsat-7 mission. The payload of Landsat-7, which will be launched by GSFC and operated by NOAA, will be the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+).
Scott Lambros reviewed the EOS Project/ASTER Instrument status. He reported that: 1) flight model builds of all AM-1 instruments have begun; 2) in general, AM-1 is progressing on schedule for a June 1998 launch; and 3) the decision was made for no covers after fairing encapsulation.
M. Kudoh presented the ASTER Instrument Project status. He said that the ASTER subsystems developers are now fabricating proto-flight hardware. Integration and test of the ASTER system engineering model (EM) started in December and is almost finalized. The Project Implementation Plan (PIP) -Vol. 1 was signed January 31, 1995. An Instrument Operation Team, since renamed ASTER Operation Team (AOT), was formed in March. The AOT is a senior advisory body consisting of representatives from the Japanese Science Team, JAROS, and ERSDAC.
NEC Corporation reported that the mechanical and electrical integration of ASTER was completed and that the ASTER system Critical Design Review validation will be held in September.
H. Watanabe presented the plan for the development of the ASTER Ground Data System (ASTER GDS). He showed high-level and detailed development schedules and the organization for ASTER GDS development. He then described the three segments of the ASTER GDS.
M. Pniel (ASTER Product Generation System) reported that he has received the EOSDIS toolkits (TKs) 1-4. The toolkits have been incorporated into all the data products on which they have worked. Some minor problems have been corrected with the contractor's (Hughes) help. Most data products were converted to production versions for the beta version. By the next science team meeting, the beta version will be delivered to developers, and testing and integration will be underway for delivery to EDC.
H. Watanabe reported on the Level 1 (L1) ad hoc meeting that had been held in March. At this meeting the Japanese proposed that there is no need for Ground Control Points (GCPs) to produce geometrically corrected products and that additional flexibility (re-map projection, movable scenes, flexible interpolation) should be handled as Level 3 products. They also presented the status of the L1 algorithm development process and discussed the options for L1 browse. G. Geller reported that the meeting attendees resolved that L1 granularity will be scenes.
D. Nichols summarized the activities of the Operations and Mission Planning Working Group (OMPWG) since the last Science Team meeting. He reviewed the purpose and structure of the Functional Requirements for Mission Operations (FRMO) document and noted that he expected it to be finalized by the close of this meeting. He discussed the "Just-in-Time Scheduling" concept and presented a proposed 6-hour Uplink Timeline. A. Kahle noted that it appeared that use of the "Just-in-Time Scheduling" concept, as opposed to the baseline concept, could make possible acquisition of up to twice as much usable data from the mission.
A. Kahle opened the Closing Plenary Session and reviewed the agenda.
H. Kieffer, Geometric Calibration Working Group, noted that the WG plans to open discussions with the Landsat Team to collaborate on geometric test sites.
P. Slater, Radiometric Calibration Working Group, reported that new Action Items include organizing a joint field campaign for Japanese and U.S. ASTER team members and Landsat-7, probably in Spring '96, in the southwestern U.S. This involves the Geological Survey of Japan, ERSDAC, National Research Laboratory of Meteorology, JPL, University of Arizona, and GSFC. F. Sakuma, from the Radiometric Calibration Working Group, reported on a very successful cross-calibration experiment and also on the differences in philosophy between the U.S. and Japanese regarding reprocessing with changed calibration coefficients.
D. Nichols, reporting on the progress and plans of the Operations and Mission Planning Working Group, said that the ASTER Long-Term Instrument Plan (LTIP) is to be released in July for Science Team reaction and the FRMO document will be complete after addition of comments received by Team members at this meeting. He also noted that the "Just-in-Time Scheduling" concept has moved the uplink timeline from a 5-day scenario to a 17 hr+ scenario.
G. Geller, from the Level 1 Architecture Working Group, reported that: 1) Level 1 browse will be produced for Level 1A only, with 100% of the data being used for browse; rough radiometric/geometric corrections will be employed, and 2) criteria are needed to determine which of the maximum 310 scenes of the 780 daily Level 1A scenes will be processed to Level 1B.
F. Palluconi summarized the three elements of the Atmospheric Correction Working Group meeting: status of algorithm and standard data product production software development, discussion of the April 1995 Lake Tahoe validation experiment, and development of a validation-site list. He reported that beta versions of the production software for the reflection and emission region software will be completed and run at the DAAC early next year. He said that adjacency effects will be treated as special products in Japan.
T. Schmugge reviewed the Ecosystems Working Group's proposed test-site list. The WG interests include evapotranspiration estimation (U.S.), vegetation index (Japan), and coral reefs (Japan). They expressed interest in identifying joint test sites with other WGs or Science Team.
A. Gillespie, T/E Working Group, reported on U.S. and Japanese WG activities, issues, and plans. He expressed a concern about rough areas, and how the mix of cavity radiation and first emission might complicate the retrieval. He also noted that major sources of error are the atmospheric correction, regression for emissivity, and mixing (compositional mixing, temperature variations, and multiple scattering effects for rough surfaces). He said that up to 1 degree C temperature error may result from effects of large clouds up to 1 km away and that the WG needs to have the sensitivity to atmospheric correction quantified.
M. Abrams, Oceanography, Limnology, and Sea Ice Working Group, reviewed the discussions at the WG meeting. He identified three special products: water surface temperature (using AVHRR split window approach); turbidity (Secchi depth); and aquatic plants. The WG will invite a MODIS SST representative to attend its next meeting to discuss commonality.
L. Rowan, Geology Working Group, said that the WG focused on updating its regional monitoring requirements. Specific regional monitoring topics were assigned to individual WG members to prepare white papers. The WG is responsible for one algorithm, the decorrelation stretch, and it has identified three candidate algorithm validation test sites‹Cuprite, Nevada; Death Valley, California; and Mt. Fitton, Australia.
A. Kahle summarized the Higher Level Data Products Working Group meeting. Each of the Working Group Chairs presented lists of proposed test sites and the rationale for their selections. The possibility of consolidation was briefly examined. Between now and the next Team meeting the individual Working Groups will explore consolidation with other ASTER working groups and other Instrument Teams. A. Kahle and Y. Yamaguchi will pursue interactions with MODIS, MISR, and Landsat. A SeaWiFS representative will be invited to the next meeting.
S. Hook and S. Rokugawa, Airborne Sensors Working Group, reported that the Ames C-130 is being terminated. The Wallops C-130 will be relocated to Dryden and retrofitted to take the Ames C-130 instruments including TIMS. This, however, will cause a hiatus during the refitting. M. Abrams reported that the Multispectral Infrared and Visible Spectrometer (MIVIS), a perfect simulator for ASTER, may be in the U.S. in June of 1996 and may acquire data over U.S. sites.
J. Salisbury, Spectral Library Committee, announced that the Committee plans to make new spectral data from Johns Hopkins University on igneous rocks, snow and ice, and vegetation available via Internet.
S. Rokugawa announced that a special issue of the Journal of the Remote Sensing Society of Japan focuses on ASTER. The issue is Vol. 15, No. 2, published in June 1995, which contains 14 papers (9 in Japanese, 5 in English). H. Tsu, ASTER Science Team Leader, is Editor-in-Chief of this special issue. Rokugawa said that this special issue will familiarize the Japanese with ASTER.
H. Tsu announced that a Japanese announcement of opportunity will be out this year, but the schedule is not fixed. T. Cudahy said that there will be an AVIRIS campaign this summer in Australia and invited anyone interested to contact him.
A. Kahle adjourned the meeting. She applauded everyone for such a highly productive meeting. H. Tsu thanked the U.S. Team and especially H. Kieffer for putting together such a successful meeting.
The next ASTER Science Team meeting will be held November 14-17, 1995 in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan.