--Andrew Morrison (andy@lithos.jpl.nasa.gov), Jet Propulsion laboratory, CA The thirteenth ASTER Science Team meeting was held May 20-23 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Approximately 100 participants attended the meeting. Progress was made in several areas including: (1) instrument resource allocation and tracking; (2) the process for reaching an agreement on the initial checkout period data acquisitions (launch+40 to launch+105 days); (3) joint development of mission analysis tools; and (4) plans for the data product validation experiments scheduled for this summer. In addition, the Joint Review Committee for Science Team Acquisition Requests (STARs) was formed and had its first meeting„this committee will review and approve requests for data acquisitions that are of interest to more than one investigator. The meeting included an opening Plenary Session, meetings of the various ASTER Working Groups, and a summary Plenary Session. The following narrative notes are excerpted from the opening and closing Plenary presentations and discussion.
Plenary I
R. J. Thompson, Manager of the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation System (EROS) Data Center welcomed the ASTER Science Team. He expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to work with the ASTER Science Team.
A. Kahle reported that the ASTER Data Acquisition Request (DAR) Entry Tool and ASTER Home Page were both demonstrated at the IWG meeting in San Diego. She indicated that both were well received by the attendees who entered several DARs into the database. She also reported that:
Y. Yamaguchi reported late news and Project status. He said that:
S. Lambros reported on the status of the ASTER instrument and other ASTER activities and the EOS AM-1 status and science maneuvers. He said that: Ì The instrument was delivered to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space (LMMS), Valley Forge, on February 28, 1997. Mechanical integration was begun on May 7 and was expected to be completed by the end of May.
Lambros is leaving the Project. He expressed his pleasure at having been a part of ASTER. He said that the new ASTER Instrument Manager contact will be Art Unger at 301-286-6161; e-mail arthur.unger@ gsfc.nasa.gov.
M. Kudoh of the Japan Resources Observation System Organization (JAROS) reported on the ASTER instrument status. He noted that ASTER was the first EOS AM-1 instrument to be delivered. Following a successful Bench Acceptance Test (BAT), formal delivery was acknowledged by NASA, JAROS, and LMMS on March 19. A Spacecraft Comprehensive Performance Test is scheduled to begin in August of 1997. Various tests will continue until March, 1998, and launch site activities will be performed in May and June of 1998 at Vandenberg.
K. Ogikubo reported that the ASTER PFM Tests and Reviews were completed successfully in Japan, and the same functions and performance were verified by the ASTER post-shipment BAT. He presented examples of calibration data.
H. Watanabe reviewed the development status of the ASTER GDS. To begin, he showed a viewgraph depicting the management structure of ASTER in Japan: the ñASTER Trinity,î in which Watanabe manages the ASTER GDS Project, Mr. Kawakami manages the ASTER Science Project, and Mr. Kudoh manages the ASTER Instrument Project. He then reviewed the GDS development mechanism and major Project milestone dates on the Japan and U.S. sides up to May of 1997. He reported three major new developments:
He reviewed the GDS schedule and the status of interface documents that involve the GDS. Finally, Watanabe said that the GDS will be able to produce expedited data to support early mission activities at about three times the rate projected for the rest of the mission.
Rick Obenschain reviewed the EOSDIS and ECS status for the Science Team. He announced that emergency back-up funds have been allocated and are being held to support AM-1, Landsat 7, and SAGE III, and he presented the status of the emergency back-up plans of the AM-1 instruments.
H. Fujisada presented the ASTER Level-1 development schedule and status. He also presented processing parameters and discussed the bad pixel replacement algorithm (simple linear interpolation method).
T. Kawakami summarized the Operations and Mission Planning Working Group (OMPWG) ad hoc meeting that was held in Tokyo, March 5-7, 1997. Among the topics addressed at that meeting were:
A. Kahle asked that, in order to be responsive to Y. KaufmanÍs request for early mission results, the Science Team develop at this meeting a list of targets for the first 60 days of the mission. She said that for days 40 through 105, she expects targets to include Calibration and Validation sites, synergy with other instruments, ñHotî science, Public Relations (PR), and Global Map targets. Days 105 through 180 will continue Cal/Val algorithm test sites, Global Map, long-term-monitoring STARs, DARs for Team Members, and possibly other DARs.
I. Sato projected that a draft version of the ASTER UsersÍ Guide would be ready for review at the December Science Team meeting in Japan, and that Version 1 (Launch Version) would be prepared by the end of March, 1998, and would be available for users by the end of the Initial Checkout Phase of the mission.
Y. Yamaguchi presented the final version of The Global Data Set Prioritization Map. He reviewed the process of the development of the Global Prioritization Map and summarized the schedule and details of the update of the map. The final global prioritization map is composed of 2 layers, a priority map layer and a parameter layer.
Ed Zalewski presented Vicarious Calibration VNIR-SWIR cross-comparison. He reviewed the results from last yearÍs field experiment, which showed a 5% variation in VNIR results and 20% variation in SWIR results. He reviewed the objectives for this yearÍs experiment and presented the schedule for this yearÍs field activities.
Y. Yamaguchi presented ñIssues for Discussion.î Among them were:
A. Kahle also discussed STAR collection. She noted that there is an immediate need for a realistic list of prospective STARs that represent the entire community. She reviewed the STAR proposal review process and the make-up of the Proposal Review Committee.
The second Plenary Session, held on the last day of the meeting, was composed of reports by the individual Working Groups on their sessions, a review of the ASTER calendar, and meeting wrap-up.
Y. Yamaguchi summarized the STAR Review Panel meeting. He reviewed the STAR Proposal Approval and Submission Process, which requires review of each STAR by the relevant ASTER Science Team Discipline Working Group. The Panel hopes to have a list of planned regional and local at-launch STARs by September ï97 and completed at-launch STARs with xAR parameters by February ï98.
E. Zalewski, Radiometric Calibration WG, said that the Radiometric Validation Plan Document will be delivered to S. Hook by mid-July. A possible vicarious calibration cross comparison in Tsukuba, Japan, to coincide with the next Team meeting, was discussed. There were also further discussions about future round-robin measurements and the status of NIST participation in the round robin.
H. Kieffer said that the Geometric Calibration WG discussed the planned AM-1 yaw maneuvers, but questioned whether ASTER will make any use of them. They do recommend a change to the UIID to include a note stating that the Lunar Maneuver shall be performed during Initial Check Out (ICO), six months later, and then at one-year spacing. Some refinements are still necessary in the list of Geometric test sites from the U.S. and Japan.
G. Geller summarized the Level-1 WG meeting. In that meeting, the Japanese L-1 developers said that:
M. Pniel, Operations and Mission Planning Working Group, said that the U.S. and Japan have agreed that, in the period Day 105 through Day 180, DARs will be limited to ïimportantÍ acquisitions. Japan and the U.S. continue to agree on the concept of constraints on the amount of requests scheduled for the first one-to-two years. He also said that the Instrument Support Terminal (IST) schedule for the installation of the IST in the U.S. is about 6-10 weeks behind, but that Watanabe had guaranteed the new mid-September, 1997 date.
The U.S. and the Japanese agreed that an operations manual is needed for use during normal operations. ASTER GDS will provide the manual for the Instrument Control and Operation System (ICOS) operator.
H. Lang summarized the presentations and discussions in the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) WG meeting. He said that all 12 DEM Standard Data Product validation sites in the DEM Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) and in the test site database have been submitted to be targets during days 40-105. The same sites are also submitted to be Local STARs to be collected annually. In addition, the WG proposed the Himalayan Mountains (Mt. Everest) and Vatnajoicull, Iceland, to be Early Mission PR/Hot sites.
F. Palluconi said that the Atmospheric Correction Working Group issues and actions included:
Alan Gillespie reported that the Temperature-Emissivity (T-E) WG produced its list of STARs and Early Mission Target requirements. They propose to add a tropical site to their test site list„probably in conjunction with the Amazon people. He added that they hope to use SEBASS to validate their algorithm. With SEBASS, they can simulate ASTER data without having to worry about introducing errors during the process of producing simulated data. He said that a major concern with the present design of the algorithm is the difficulty of getting precise temperatures and emissivities in a case where the downwelling radiation is a large part of the emitted radiation.
H. Kayanne, Ecosystem WG, presented:
M. Abrams reported that the Oceanography WG had identified Biwa Lake, Shinji Lake, and Tokyo Bay as its validation sites for Days 40-105 of the early mission. Their objective is to acquire each target two times during the 65-day period.
L. Rowan summarized the Geology Working Group meeting. The meeting included status updates of science activities by P. Christensen (Urban Monitoring Potential of ASTER and Monitoring Sediment Transport in the Mojave Desert using TIMS data), D. Pieri (Volcano Monitoring), and B. Raup (Global Land Ice Monitoring from Space [GLIMS] Progress). Y. Yamaguchi reported on a problem with defining the sun angle for global mapping. The WG will produce STARs to collect data about volcanoes, glaciers, deserts, and coastal zones, and they identified several additional topics to which ASTER might contribute. They also identified three validation sites for d-stretch: Cuprite, Death Valley, and Mt. Fitton, and they proposed four additional PR sites: Yellowstone National Park, Chesapeake Bay, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
G. Geller reported on the proceedings of the Higher Level Data Products Working Group meeting. A list of proposed Vicarious and Cross-calibration STARs for the period 40 days after launch through 105 days after launch was presented.
L. Rowan summarized all the discussion and commitments for the special ASTER JGR publication by presenting a list of eight potential papers. They were:
The next ASTER Science Team meeting will be held December 9-12 in Yurakucho, Japan.