Most of the Multispectral Imaging Science Group works on the ASTER Project under the leadership of Michael Abrams. ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is an imaging instrument flying on Terra, a satellite launched in December 1999 as part of NASA's Earth Observing System. ASTER is a cooperative effort between NASA, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan's Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center.

ASTER is being used to obtain detailed maps of land surface temperature, reflectance and elevation. An example of the use of ASTER data is for forest fire monitoring, as shown in this image of the Big Sur, California fire burning in July 2008. Active hot spots are displayed in red, derived from ASTER?s thermal infrared channels. Other work in the group focuses on active volcanism, Mars analogs, UAV instrumentation, and development of future thermal infrared imaging instruments.

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