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Description

The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Surface Kinetic Temperature (AST_08) V004 product delivers surface kinetic temperature data derived from the five Thermal Infrared (TIR) bands (Bands 10–14), collected during both daytime and nighttime observations. The AST_08 product has a spatial resolution of 90 meters (m) for the TIR bands. This Level 2 (L2) product is produced using the Temperature/Emissivity Separation (TES) algorithm, which processes atmospherically corrected ASTER surface radiance (TIR) data to estimate emissivity and compute temperature. In Version 4, atmospheric correction has been significantly improved by integrating Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) data, enhancing the accuracy of temperature retrievals.

Acquisitions for AST_08 ended on January 16, 2026, at 05:10:45 UTC, when the ASTER TIR instrument was permanently turned off due to power limitations on the Terra spacecraft. More information is available in this NASA Science News Brief. 

Known Issues

  • Level 2 products that are on the international date line/anti-meridian have incorrect bounding coordinates for the UTM zone defined in the file metadata.

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for ASTER Level 2 Version 4 data products: (1) ASTER V4 uses Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) data as the primary source for atmospheric parameters (ozone, water vapor, pressure, and temperature), improving the precision of emissivity calculations, (2) When MERRA-2 data are unavailable, the product employs Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) data as a backup, with climatology data serving as a final fallback to ensure continuous processing, and (3) Data format has transitioned from legacy HDF-EOS2 to Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG).

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
ASTER
Projects
TERRA
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
90 Meters x 90 Meters
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-03-04 to 2026-01-16
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
Ground Data System, Japan Space Systems, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan (JP/METI/AIST/JSS/GDS)
Concept ID
C3306885674-LPCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
4732925
Processing Level
2
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Land Surface Temperature ,
Sea Surface Temperature

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. (2025). ASTER L2 Surface Kinetic Temperature V004 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/AST_08.004 Date Accessed: 2026-07-06

File Naming Convention

AST_08_00401232021224347_20250912131456_SKT_QA_DataPlane.tif

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (AST_08), followed by the 3-digit Version Number plus the Date and Time of Acquisition designated as MMDDYYYYHHMMSS (00401232021224347), Date and Time of Processing designated as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS (20250912131456), Product Type (SKT), Band/Variable (QA_DataPlane), and the Data Format (tif).

Documents

ASTER Level 2 Surface Kinetic Temperature (AST_08) over Kīlauea Crater, Hawaii, acquired on 2025-08-09 at 07:30:32 UTC. The image shows a semi-transparent thermal overlay on an Esri satellite basemap. A concentrated hotspot of temperatures exceeding 100°C is visible near the center of the crater floor, displayed in deep red, surrounded by a gradient of orange and yellow tones indicating elevated but cooler surface temperatures. The surrounding terrain shows ambient temperatures near 0°C. The spatial ex

Exploring AST 08 Surface Kinetic Temperature

This Jupyter Notebook shows users how to find, access, process and display ASTER Level-2 Surface Kinetic Temperature (AST_08) data.
External Resource
Jupyter Notebook
May 14, 2026
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Publications Citing This Dataset

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Title Year Author Topic
Structural analysis and thermal remote sensing of the Los Humeros Volcanic Compleximplications for volcano structure and geothermal exploration Norini, G., Groppelli, G., Sulpizio, R., Carrasco-Nunez, G., Davila-Harris, P., Pellicioli, C., Zucca, F., De Franco, R. Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
An efficient approach for pixel decomposition to increase the spatial resolution of land surface temperature images from MODIS thermal infrared band data Wang, Fei, Qin, Zhihao, Li, Wenjuan, Song, Caiying, Karnieli, Arnon, Zhao, Shuhe Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, REFLECTED INFRARED, THERMAL INFRARED, VISIBLE IMAGERY, Visible Radiance, Sea Surface Temperature
Generating daily high spatial land surface temperatures by combining ASTER and MODIS land surface temperature products for environmental process monitoring Wu, Mingquan, Li, Hua, Huang, Wenjiang, Niu, Zheng, Wang, Changyao Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Spatial configuration of anthropogenic land cover impacts on urban warming Zheng, Baojuan, Myint, Soe W., Fan, Chao Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Validation of ASTER surface temperature data with in situ measurements to evaluate heat islands in complex urban areas Song, Bonggeun, Park, Kyunghun Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Estimating the spatial distribution of soil moisture based on Bayesian maximum entropy method with auxiliary data from remote sensing Gao, Shengguo, Zhu, Zhongli, Liu, Shaomin, Jin, Rui, Yang, Guangchao, Tan, Lei Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Genetic particle filter application to land surface temperature downscaling Mechri, Rihab, Ottle, Catherine, Pannekoucke, Olivier, Kallel, Abdelaziz Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Estimation of the relationship between remotely sensed anthropogenic heat discharge and building energy use Zhou, Yuyu, Weng, Qihao, Gurney, Kevin R., Shuai, Yanmin, Hu, Xuefei Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Evaluating the potential for urban heat-island mitigation by greening parking lots Onishi, Akio, Cao, Xin, Ito, Takanori, Shi, Feng, Imura, Hidefumi Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
Remote sensing in hydrology Schmugge, Thomas J., Kustas, William P., Ritchie, Jerry C., Jackson, Thomas J., Rango, Al Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature
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