The New Version 3 Aster Global DEM and the Aster Water Body Dataset

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is a 14-channel imaging instrument operating on NASA's Terra satellite. A joint project between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), ASTER has been acquiring data for 21 years, since January 2000. ASTER has a VNIR instrument with three bands and a 15 m IFOV. One of those bands, at a wavelength of about 0.8 micrometers, is accompanied by an additional band using a second, backward-looking telescope. Collecting along-track stereo pairs, the geometry produces a base-to-height ratio of 0.6. The archive now contains over 4.5 million scenes; for the vast majority of them, a stereo pair was collected using the nadir and backward telescopes.