The proposed research will expand upon a critical new processing pathway for data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) sensor of natural disaster sites. That work was implemented during the P.I.'s previously funded Earth System Science research project (NNG04GO69G: Automation of the ASTER Emergency Data Acquisition Protocol for Scientific Analyses, Disaster Monitoring and Preparedness). This new project will serve as a renewal proposal to that effort with a significant expansion of the science return and the continued appointment of the P.I. on the ASTER science team. In our past research we focused specifically on automating the ASTER sensor's ability for targeted observational scheduling. This urgent request protocol (URP) is one of the most unique characteristics of ASTER, providing a pathway for a limited number of emergency observations, typically at a much-improved temporal resolution. The collaboration of NASA, the USGS, and several universities has been successful and allowed for a relatively fast test and implementation of the procedure. In the next phase of the study we propose to both expand the operational aspect of the URP automation as well as increase the scientific return from the acquired ASTER data. Scientifically, we are proposing three interrelated tasks, which will utilize the data collected through these URP observations. First, we will modify and improve the ASTER URP data stream with improvements at both the LP-DAAC and regional centers around the world. This will allow us to monitor large wildland fires, and expand our volcanic observations by integrating other established volcanic monitoring programs (e.g., Central America). Second, we will use the data returned from ASTER to examine the effects of varying spatial and spectral scales on the accurate retrievals of atmospheric aerosols (dust/ash) and climatologically-active gas species. Finally, we will utilize the improved thermal maps and together with MODIS data to better constrain arc-wide volcanic flux and eruption rates, thereby establishing a baseline of data critical for a longer-term observation, monitoring, and recovery for regions impacted by natural disasters.
