Satellite ASTER Geoscience Map of Australia

The ASTER geoscience map of Australia is a set of digital geoscience products generated from satellite ASTER data. ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is a Japanese imaging instrument on board USA’s TERRA satellite. The multispectral imaging sensor is the world’s first “geoscience tuned” satellite Earth Observing System. The ASTER geoscience maps of Australia represent the first continent-scale maps of the Earth’s surface mineralogy. ASTER has 14 spectral bands spanning wavelengths sensitive to important rock forming minerals, including: Iron oxides; clays; carbonates; quartz; muscovite and chlorite. Each ASTER image covers a 60 by 60 km area with individual pixel elements ranging from 15 to 90 m suitable for geoscience mapping from continent (1:2,500,000) down to mineral prospect (1:50,000) scale. The Australian mosaic is sourced from ~35,000 ASTER scenes with approximately 3500 used in the final mosaic. The products are: False colour; CSIRO Landsat TM Regolith Ratios; Green vegetation content; Ferric oxide content; Ferric oxide composition; Ferrous iron index; Opaque index; AIOH group content; AIOH group composition; Kaolin group index; FeOH group content; MgOH group content; MgOH group composition; Ferrous iron content in MgOH/carbonate; Silica Index; Quartz Index; Gypsum Index.