Alaska Satellite Facility

ASF home graphic dish with satellite above and aurora in the sky

ASF Timeline

2022
SAR processing milestone
HyP3 On Demand cloud processing is incorporated into Vertex Data Search
Hyp3-logo
2021
30th Anniversary
ASF celebrates 30 years of operations
ASF 30th anniversary poster
2021
Newest NASA addition
AS4 construction completed

Construction of the newest NASA antenna at ASF is completed. AS4 will support the upcoming NISAR satellite mission.

2020
Antenna Upgrade
NASA AS1 antenna (1996) gets an upgrade to provide state-of-the-art performance
2017
Antenna upgrade
AS2 antenna replaced

The first ASF antenna (1991), located on top of the CT Elvey Building, is upgraded in support of the NASA Near Space Network.

2016
25th Anniversary
ASF Celebrates 25 Year Anniversary
 
2016
Data archive expands
ASF Supports NASA SMAP Mission

ASF Ground Station supports NASA SMAP mission to study Earth's soil moisture ASF DAAC starts distributing SMAP data.

2016
Data archive expands
ESA's Sentinel-1B launched

Sentinel-1B is launched to join Sentinel-1A in providing global SAR coverage. Data from both satellites are distributed from ASF.

2016
Data archive expands
Unrestricted ALOS PALSAR Data available

ASF DAAC will distribute data from NISAR

Japanese government makes ALOS PALSAR data unrestricted, giving international users new access to the 2006-2011 dataset archived by ASF DAAC.

2016
Data archive expands
NISAR Data
ASF DAAC distributes data from NISAR

NASA announces that ASF DAAC will distribute data from NISAR, a joint U.S.-lndia satellite mission to be launched in 2023.

2015
ASF Distributing S1 Data
Sentinel 1 Data Agreement, ALOS PALSAR RTC Released, NASA Award

ASF DAAC starts distributing the entire archive of Sentinel 1A data through a historic agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency.

2015
A year of accomplishments and recognition
ALOS PALSAR RTC Dataset Released
ASF completes radiometric terrain correction of ALOS PALSAR dataset

ASF completes radiometric terrain correction of ALOS PALSAR dataset.

2015
ASF Recognized for performance
ASF receives NASA Award
Prestigous NASA award recognizes ASF Ground Station team

The prestigious NASA award recognizes the ASF Ground Station team for making the new antenna fully operational ahead of schedule.

2014
ASF is growing
ASF Enterprise Services.
University owned antenna assets

ASF Enterprise offers ground station services from university-owned antenna assets.

2014
ASF is growing
A Third Antenna at ASF
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for NASA's third antenna at ASF

Ribbon-cutting ceremony for NASA's third antenna at ASF.

2014
ASF is growing
Data Storage Milestone

ASF DAAC data archive exceeds 1.5 petabytes, roughly equivalent to 500 Million Songs stored as MP3s.

2013
New imagery based on historic 1978 Seasat Mission
ASF DAAC Releases Never Seen Before Imagery

ASF DAAC releases newly processed imagery, much of which had never been seen before from the historic 1978 Seasat mission.

2012
ASF UAVSAR Data Availability Plays Important Role
ASF Data Plays Important Role In Detection of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

UAVSAR data accessed through ASF DAAC played an important role in detecting the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

2011
20th Anniversary
ASF Celebrates 20th Anniversary
ASF 20th anniversary poster
2011
Vertex Search
New Web Data Portal Vertex is Launched.

New web data portal Vertex

New web data portal Vertex enables search and discovery of downloadable data and imagery.

2010
ALOS PALSAR assists with detecting fault lines
ALOS PALSAR Plays Important Role in Detecting Haitian Fault Zones

ALOSPALSAR data, which can be accessed through ASF DAAC, plays a vital role in detecting the fault zones that were in play, causing the devastating Haitian earthquake.

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) begins data acquisition for Japan's ALOS mission, the start of a historic international collaboration.

2008
AIRSAR Data Added
AIRSAR Data Added

NASA Airborne SAR (AIRSAR) data collection was added to the ASF DAAC for archive and distribution.

2006
A busy year!
ALOS Data Node

America's ALOS Data Node (AADN) was created in partnership with NOAA.

2006
A busy year!
JAXA Satellite Launch

JAXA ALOS satellite launch.

JAXA ALOS satellite

2006
Uplink completed
ASF's First Uplink

The first ASF uplink of a command file to an orbiting satellite was completed.

First ASF uplink of a command file to an orbiting satellite

2003
Alaska SAR Facility renamed
Alaska SAR Facility renamed
ASF Logo in 2003

The Alaska SAR Facility was renamed the Alaska Satellite Facility to be more descriptive and better reflect the extent of the facility and its services as a whole.

1997
RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping
RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping

The RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Mission 1 was completed. A tiled mosaic was created by the Ohio State University.

1995
Expanded
RADARSAT-1 data at ASF

ASF downlinks, processes, and distributes data from RADARSAT-1.

The 11-meter-tall NASA antenna was installed to support the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-1) of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASCA)

1994
ASF DAAC created
ASF DAAC created
NASA Logo

ASF Distributed Active Archive Center(DAAC) was created under contract with NASA

1991
ASF's first antenna
ASF's first antenna
1991 ASF's first antenna

ASF's first antenna becomes operational and receives its first downlink from ERS-1