ASTER L1T: Precision Terrain Corrected Satellite Radiance

ASTER Level 1T Precision Terrain Corrected Registered At-Sensor Radiance V004 contains calibrated, geometrically corrected satellite imagery from the Terra ASTER instrument. The data includes up to three Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) bands at 15-meter resolution, six Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) bands at 30 meters, and five Thermal Infrared (TIR) bands at 90 meters. Precision terrain correction uses GLS2000 digital elevation data and ground control points for topographic accuracy, with alternate correction levels for nighttime or low-quality scenes.

Use Cases

• Land cover classification based on multispectral VNIR and SWIR bands.
• Geological mapping and mineral identification using calibrated SWIR radiance.
• Surface temperature and thermal anomaly analysis from TIR bands.
• Topographic feature extraction and change detection using precision terrain-corrected imagery.
• Validation of atmospheric correction models using registered at-sensor radiance data.

Strengths

• Provides multispectral data across 14 potential spectral bands with three distinct spatial resolutions (15m, 30m, 90m).
• Incorporates precision terrain correction using GLS2000 elevation data and ground control points for improved geometric accuracy.
• Includes independent quality assessment files and georeferenced browse images for each corrected scene.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact size are unknown across all sources.
• License information conflicts between sources (CC-BY-4.0 vs. other-license-specified).
• The dataset does not include the aft-looking VNIR band 3.

Provenance

Source

Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument.

Collection Method

Created from a single resampling of the corresponding ASTER Level 1A (AST_L1A) product, with geometric correction and rotation to a north-up UTM projection.

Freshness

Last updated date reported as 2026-03-13 on two platforms.

Geography

Global land coverage from satellite orbits.