ASTER initial image evaluation

12 The ASTER system was launched successfully on board the Terra spacecraft on December 18, 1999. The system obtains multispectral images ranging from visible to thermal infrared region by combining three subsystems composed of four telescopes. To deliver data products with high quality from the viewpoint of the geolocation and band-to-band registration performance, the fundamental program called the Level-1 processing has been developed. The geometric validation procedure of ASTER, which consists of four telescopes and a cross-track pointing function, is carried out during the initial checkout period. Image matching method based on a cross-correlation function was used to register images of each band.