HRIRN1IM: Nimbus-1 Satellite Nighttime Infrared Images, August-September 1964

Orbital images from the Nimbus-1 satellite's High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) instrument, showing nighttime brightness temperature values. The data was collected by NASA from August 28, 1964, through September 22, 1964, and contains scanned negatives of 70mm film strips saved as JPEG 2000 files. Each image is gridded with geographic coordinates and covers a swath from the north to the south pole.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical nighttime cloud cover patterns based on infrared brightness temperature images.
• Studying Earth's surface temperature variations in 1964 based on the 3.5 to 4.1 micron wavelength data.
• Mapping geographic features from a historical satellite perspective based on the gridded orbital swath images.
• Training computer vision models for cloud detection on early satellite imagery based on the scanned film negatives.

Strengths

• Data includes geographic coordinate grids on each image, providing spatial context.
• Images are saved in a modern digital format (JPEG 2000) derived from the original film.
• The dataset has a clearly defined operational period from August 28 to September 22, 1964.
• Processing techniques and a full data description are documented in the 'Nimbus I Users' Guide.'

Limitations

• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The temporal coverage is limited to approximately 26 days in 1964.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)

Collection Method

Scanned negatives of photofacsimile 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-1 HRIR instrument.

Time Range

August 28, 1964, through September 22, 1964

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:37:48.809034; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage, with each orbital swath approximately from the north pole to the south pole.