Northern Arizona is best known for the Grand Canyon. Less widely known are
the hundreds of geologically young volcanoes, at least one of which buried
the homes of local residents. San Francisco Mtn., a truncated
stratovolcano at 3887 meters, was once a much taller structure (about 4900
meters) before it exploded some 400,000 years ago a la Mt. St. Helens. The
young cinder cone field to its east includes Sunset Crater, that erupted
in 1064 and buried Native American homes. This ASTER perspective was
created by draping ASTER image data over topographic data from the U.S.
Geological Survey National Elevation Data.
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: 20.4 by 24.6 kilometers (12.6 by 15.2 miles)
Location: 35.3 degrees North latitude, 111.5 degrees West longitude
Orientation: North at top
Image Data: ASTER Bands 3, 2, and 1
Original Data Resolution: Landsat 30 meters (24.6 feet); ASTER 15 meters (49.2 feet)
Dates Acquired: October 21, 2003