ASTER L2 Surface Reflectance: VNIR and SWIR Bands at 15m and 30m Resolution

ASTER L2 Surface Reflectance data measures the fraction of solar radiation reflected from Earth's surface, corrected for atmospheric effects. The product is generated by NASA's Terra ASTER instrument, with VNIR bands at 15-meter and SWIR bands at 30-meter spatial resolution. The dataset was last updated in March 2026 and uses Version 4 processing with enhanced atmospheric correction.

Use Cases

• Land cover classification and change detection based on surface reflectance values.
• Vegetation health and stress monitoring based on spectral reflectance in VNIR and SWIR bands.
• Mineral and geological mapping based on shortwave infrared spectral signatures.
• Surface energy balance and albedo studies based on corrected reflectance data.

Strengths

• Spatial resolution is 15 meters for VNIR bands and 30 meters for SWIR bands.
• Version 4 processing uses MERRA-2 data for atmospheric correction, improving precision.
• Fallback mechanisms with GDAS and climatology data aim to ensure continuous processing.

Limitations

• SWIR data acquired after April 2008 may exhibit anomalous saturation and striping.
• Level 2 products on the international date line have incorrect bounding coordinates in metadata.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite observations from the Terra ASTER instrument, processed to Level 2 surface reflectance.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:25:48.018770; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from the Terra satellite's orbit.