Picher, Oklahoma once boasted 20,000 people in this mining town in northeast Oklahoma. Now, after a 2009 tornado, and a federal cleanup program, the town is a modern-day ghost town. Picher lies in the middle of the Tar Creek Superfund site, an expanse of lead- and zinc-mining towns that extends into Missouri and Kansas. But mine cave-ins, sinkholes, and a creek that flows orange from pollution have forced abandonment of Picher and the surrounding smaller towns. The image was acquired July 12, 2006, covers an area of 17.7 by 16.8 km, and is located at 37 degrees north latitude, 94.8 degrees west 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/.