Abstract
Application of ASTER to monitoring ecosystem and landsurface climatology is introduced with special emphasis on the ASTER science data products on vegetation, soil and coral reaf. ASTER is characterized by the high spatial resolution observation and by the multiple bands observation in the short infrared and thermal infrared wavelength range. It is well known that these characteristics are very useful for the investigation of solid earth surface parameters on minerals and oil, however, it is not yet clear how these characteristics are utilized for monitoring ecosystem parameters on vegetation, soil and waters.
This paper examines how ASTER plays a role in the terrestrial ecosystem monitoring in the ECS Project and how ASTER can be used for measuring biological and biophysical parameters. The paper also introduces the ASTER data products which are now beeing investigated in the "Ecosystem and Landsurface Climatology Working Group" of the ASTER Science Team.
