Three weeks after Hurricane Ike came ashore near Galveston, TX, residents
returned to find their houses in ruins. From the coast to over 15 km
inland, salt water saturated the soil as a result of the 7m storm surge
pushed ashore by the force of the hurricane. The right image was acquired
on September 28; the left image was acquired August 15, 2006. Vegetation
is displayed in red, and inundated areas are in blue-green. Within the
inundated area are several small "red islands" of high ground where salt
domes raised the level of the land, and protected the vegetation.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared
wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters
(about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing
surface of our planet.
ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18,
1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team
is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the
data products.
The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides
scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface
mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example
applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring
potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud
morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution
monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils
and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate.
Size: 37 by 49.5 kilometers (22.8 by 30.6 miles)
Location: 29.8 degrees North latitude, 94.4 degrees West longitude
Orientation: North at top
Image Data: ASTER Bands 3, 2, and 1
Original Data Resolution: 15 meters (49.2 feet)
Date Acquired: September 28, 2008
