Kirkenes, Norway

The town of Kirkenes in northernmost Norway, with its 3400 inhabitants, is preparing for an expected boom as a shipping hub, as global warming has led to the opening up of the Northern Sea Route along Russia's Arctic coastline. The travel time between Tokyo and Hamburg, for example, has been cut 40%. Ten to fifteen percent of Chinese international trade could take this route by 2020, according to the director of the Chinese Polar Research Institute. The image was acquired May 19, 2003, covers an area of 24 x 25.5 km, and is located at 69.7 degrees north latitude, 30 degrees east longitude.

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 Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. 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 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, Washington, D.C.

More information about ASTER is available at http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.