AbstractThe Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) is the only high‐spatial‐resolution multispectral imager scheduled to fly in Earth orbit on the first platform of NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS‐A). The instrument will nave three bands in the visible near infrared with 15‐m spatial resolution, six bands in the short‐wave infrared with 30‐m spatial resolution and five bands in the thermal infrared with 90‐m spatial resolution. There will be an additional band in the near infrared with 15‐m spatial resolution that will provide same‐orbit stereo data when combined with the corresponding nadir viewing band. The ASTER instrument is being built by the Japanese Government based on the scientific requirements of the ASTER science team. This team consists of Japanese and American scientists, who will also be responsible for the development of algorithms for data reduction and analysis. The ASTER will be able to address a variety of science objectives identified by the EOS global change program. ASTER will provide surface temperatures and emissivity estimates, surface reflected radiances and digital elevation models at a spatial scale that will allow detailed process studies for MODIS and other global monitoring instruments at the subpixel level. Existing aircraft instruments can be used to simulate data that will be provided by ASTER. Examples are shown here of surface temperature mapping, surface compositional mapping, and digital elevation models derived from the NASA Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner, the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, and a
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