The user authorization process

The user authorization proposal

To become authorized, one must submit an ASTER user authorization proposal (1-2 pages long). Each such proposal must include:

• A brief description of the research (or other project) which requires the ASTER data, including:
  - Some information about the purpose of the research project (or other data use),
  - Who is involved in the project, and who or what agency is funding the project,
  - The geographic areas for which data are needed and the seasons during which such data would be acquired.
• An explanation of how ASTER data would be used, including:
  - The reasons why ASTER is uniquely suited to provide the necessary data (e.g. high-resolution multispectral thermal infrared images are required),
  - Some indication that resources are available to process and interpret the data.
• The credentials of the potential user, and
• The size of the geographic areas to be observed.
  - A Web-based tool will be provided to aid a potential investigator in calculating the area of any individual data acquisition request.

Evaluating the proposal

NASA’s ASTER User Authorization Committee will evaluate these proposals. This committee will include representatives of:

• The ASTER Science Team,
• NASA Headquarters, and
• The general science community.

The User Authorization Committee will forward educational proposals to NASA Headquarters for evaluation.

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of:

• Quality of proposed research (or other use)
  - Clarity of proposal.
  - Extent to which proposal meets the goals of NASA’s Office of Earth Science.
• Quantity of new ASTER data which is required
  - A successful proposal will be allocated only a limited amount of ASTER resources (e.g. scenes).
  - Proposals to acquire large amounts of data should be coordinated with other members of the science community and presented to the ASTER Science Team as possible Regional Monitoring tasks (see Notes section).
• Need for new ASTER data
  - Extent to which the proposal demonstrates that new ASTER data acquisition requests are required.
  .. Some users may want ASTER data which will already be acquired based upon existing requests (see Notes section).
  .. Other instruments, which do not have ASTER’s unique capabilities, might provide some proposers with the data they require.

If a proposal is accepted, the newly-authorized user will be notified by electronic mail, instructed how and when to request new ASTER data, and informed of the amount of new ASTER data which he or she has been allocated. If a proposal is declined, the proposer will be informed by electronic mail, along with the reason the proposal was turned down. This process will rarely take more than three months.  A year after receiving ASTER data, authorized users will be expected to submit one-page reports on their use of the data.