ASTER L2 Surface Radiance: Atmospherically Corrected VNIR and SWIR Data

ASTER Level 2 surface radiance data provides atmospherically corrected imagery from the Terra satellite's Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) and Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) sensors. The data has a spatial resolution of 15 meters for VNIR bands and 30 meters for SWIR bands, with corrections for crosstalk artifacts. This Version 4 product is produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Land cover classification and change detection based on atmospherically corrected spectral radiance.
• Mineral and geological mapping leveraging the corrected Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) bands.
• Vegetation health and biomass estimation using the Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) reflectance data.
• Surface temperature and emissivity modeling supported by the improved atmospheric correction parameters.

Strengths

• Applies a crosstalk correction to reduce stray light effects in SWIR bands, enhancing data quality.
• Uses MERRA-2 atmospheric data for improved correction precision, with GDAS and climatology fallback mechanisms.
• Implements Radiometric Calibration Coefficient Version 5 (RCC V5) for improved radiometric accuracy.

Limitations

• SWIR data acquired after April 2008 may exhibit anomalous saturation and striping.
• Products on the international date line have incorrect bounding coordinates in the metadata.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite imagery from the Terra ASTER sensor, processed to Level 2 surface radiance.

Time Range

Acquisition period includes data from at least April 2008 onward, as indicated by the SWIR advisory.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:26:47.422917; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from the Terra satellite's orbit.