Below is a collection of headlines, notices, and archived newsletters from the Alaska Satellite Facility’s News & Notes. View the latest newsletters below, and for training notices click here.
Changes coming to ASF SearchAPI
May 9, 2025
On May 21, 2025, an update will be delivered to the ASF API that will result in a 30-second timeout on searches when using SearchAPI. This will affect large list searches and Vertex searches set for 5,000 results.
To avoid this time limit on large searches, we recommend using the asf_search Python package, which will not be affected.
Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.
Dr. Steve Bowman is profiled on the NASA Earthdata website
Dr. Bowman is the Geologic Hazards Program Manager with the Utah Geological Survey and member of the ASF DAAC User ...
Read More Mapping Antarctica
While limited exploration of Antarctica occurred sporadically during the first half of the twentieth century, dedicated scientific studies began with the 1957 International Geophysical Year. ...
Read More ERS Free and Open
ERS-1 and ERS-2 are now free and open by agreement between NASA and ESA. The ERS-1 and -2 archive contains data collected primarily within the ...
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Tributes for ASF’s 25th Anniversary
Recognition for ASF in its 25th anniversary year has come from all directions, from NASA’s Near Earth Network (NEN) to the Alaska state legislature. At ...
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A New Antenna for ASF Ground Station
After many weeks of meticulous planning, local and visiting engineers and contractors first worked in subzero temperatures (down to minus 30°F) to dislodge the original, ...
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ASF 25th-Anniversary Celebration
The celebration of ASF’s quarter-century milestone took place at an open house in early June 2016. The day featured an ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – Message from the ASF Director
10-meter antenna construction underway – Photographed by Jim Coccia Nettie La Belle-Hamer – Director, ASF What is now the Alaska ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – Global Forest Mapping with JERS-1 SAR
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA; formerly known as NASDA) successfully launched the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1, nicknamed FUYO) in late 1992 into a ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar: Building Tomorrow’s Tools Today
A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system transmits electromagnetic (EM) waves at a wavelength that can range from a few millimeters to tens of centimeters. The ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – ALASKA SAR FACILITY: In the Beginning
A site for the ASF had to be found and the obvious choice was to locate it in the Elvey Building, the home of the ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – A Brief History of the RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project
The RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) was conceived in the early 1980’s by Stan Wilson, Bob Thomas, and Bill Townsend. The idea developed as part ...
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2006 Anniversary Edition – Sea Ice Motion: Science Driving U.S. SAR Research
The ability to derive quantitative estimates of fine-scale ice motion and deformation from pairs of Seasat SAR images provided the primary scientific basis for implementing ...
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