ESMRN6IM: Nimbus-6 Microwave Brightness Temperature Images on 70mm Film

Nimbus-6 satellite images of microwave brightness temperature captured on 70mm film strips, saved as digital TIFF files. The data was collected by NASA's Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) instrument, which operated until September 15, 1976. Each image frame contains two sets of orbital swath strips with a geographic grid, offering a spatial resolution of about 20 x 45 km near nadir.

Use Cases

• Analyzing cloud liquid water content over oceans based on brightness temperature measurements.
• Observing differences between sea ice and open sea in polar regions based on microwave emissions.
• Testing methods for inferring surface composition and soil moisture from passive microwave data.
• Studying historical global microwave radiation mapping using both horizontal and vertical polarization components.

Strengths

• Data includes both positive and negative film strips with a geographic grid for spatial reference.
• Images have a spatial resolution of about 20 x 45 km near nadir.
• Archived in ZIP files containing approximately 5-10 months of imagery.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The horizontal polarization channel failed on September 15, 1976, limiting subsequent data.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Nimbus-6 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) instrument from 70mm photofacsimile film strips.

Time Range

Data collection until September 15, 1976.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:47:40.162439; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage.