AST_08 v003

The Science Scalable Scripts-based Science Processor for Missions (S4PM) Version 3.4 algorithm, which is used to generate L2 Product Generation Executables (PGEs), is relying on a new ancillary input for atmospheric parameters. Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) is global atmospheric reanalysis that combines remote sensing observations and interactions with the climate system. It will be one of the primary ozone and water vapor, pressure, and temperature inputs for L2 PGEs. MERRA-2 will provide a finer geographic resolution grid since it is a 3-dimensional, 3-hourly data collection with 50-km (latitudinal direction) spatial resolution.

The fallback options for L2 PGEs are as follows:

Ozone: [TOVS Ozone (OZ_DLY ) > AURA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (AURAOMI) > Total Ozone Analysis from Stratospheric and Tropospheric (TOAST) > Earth Probe-Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EPTOMS)] or [MERRA-2] > National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) > Climatology

Water Vapor, Pressure, and Temperature: [MOD07_L2] or [MERRA-2] > NCEP/GDAS > Climatology

Caveat: The temporal range for MERRA-2 covers 1980 to present; however, there is latency of ~3 weeks after the end of a month. Hence, NCEP/GDAS > Climatology fallback sequence will be applied for on-demand requests that fall outside of MERRA-2’s temporal range or if the data is not science grade.

Starting June 23, 2021, radiometric calibration coefficient Version 5 (RCC V5) will be applied to newly observed ASTER data and archived ASTER data products. Details regarding RCC V5 are described in the following journal article.

Tsuchida, S., Yamamoto, H., Kouyama, T., Obata, K., Sakuma, F., Tachikawa, T., Kamei, A., Arai, K., Czapla-Myers, J.S., Biggar, S.F., and Thome, K.J., 2020, Radiometric Degradation Curves for the ASTER VNIR Processing Using Vicarious and Lunar Calibrations: Remote Sensing, v. 12, no. 3, at https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030427.

As of December 15, 2021, the LP DAAC has implemented changes to ASTER PGE Version 3.4, which will affect all ASTER Level 2 on-demand products. Changes include:

• Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) has been added as one of the ancillary ozone inputs for any observations made after May 27, 2020. The sequence of fallbacks for ozone will remain the same.
• Toolkit has been updated from Version 5.2.17 to 5.2.20. Users may notice minor differences between the two versions. Differences may include minuscule changes in digital numbers around the peripheral of the granule and boundaries of a cloud for Surface Reflectance and Surface Radiance (AST07 and AST09) QA Data Plane depending on the Operating System and libraries being used by the user to process the data.

Additionally, Climatology, which is one of the inputs for Ozone and Moisture, Temperature and Pressures (MTP) will be removed from the Earthdata Order Form. It has been observed that PGEs generated with Climatology as an input yield noticeable differences statistically during image and spectral analysis. Climatology will continue to be used as the final default if neither of the first two selectable options are available for Ozone and MTP. Users can check the OPERATIONALQUALITYFLAGEXPLANATION field in the metadata or the output file for atmospheric parameters that were applied.

The Science Scalable Scripts-based Science Processor for Missions (S4PM) Version 3.4 algorithm, which is used to generate L2 Product Generation Executables (PGEs), is relying on a new ancillary input for atmospheric parameters. Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) is global atmospheric reanalysis that combines remote sensing observations and interactions with the climate system. It will be one of the primary ozone and water vapor, pressure, and temperature inputs for L2 PGEs. MERRA-2 will provide a finer geographic resolution grid since it is a 3-dimensional, 3-hourly data collection with 50-km (latitudinal direction) spatial resolution.

The fallback options for L2 PGEs are as follows:

Ozone: [TOVS Ozone (OZ_DLY ) > AURA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (AURAOMI) > Total Ozone Analysis from Stratospheric and Tropospheric (TOAST) > Earth Probe-Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EPTOMS)] or [MERRA-2] > National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) > Climatology

Water Vapor, Pressure, and Temperature: [MOD07_L2] or [MERRA-2] > NCEP/GDAS > Climatology

Caveat: The temporal range for MERRA-2 covers 1980 to present; however, there is latency of ~3 weeks after the end of a month. Hence, NCEP/GDAS > Climatology fallback sequence will be applied for on-demand requests that fall outside of MERRA-2’s temporal range or if the data is not science grade.

Missing Metadata: The AST_08 products do not yet include the OPERATIONALQUALITYFLAGEXPLANATION field in the metadata file to indicate if a fall back has occurred and identify which input source was used to generate the Level 2 product files. A future release will include this metadata attribute information.

• Data acquisition gap: On November 28, 2024, at 14:20 UTC, one of Terra's power-transmitting shunt units failed. As a result, there was insufficient total power to maintain functionality of all the instruments. Due to the power loss, ASTER data were not being collected. Discussions ensued on how ASTER could resume limited operations and the instrument resumed acquisitions for the Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) bands on January 18, 2025. As a result, there have been no data aquisitions for the AST_05, AST_07, AST_07XT, AST_08, AST_09, AST_09XT, AST_09T, AST14DMO, and the ASTOTH datasets from November 28, 2024 to the present.