HRIRN2IM: Nimbus-2 Satellite Nighttime Infrared Images from 1966

May 15, 1966 through November 15, 1966 of orbital nighttime brightness temperature images from the Nimbus-2 High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer. The data consists of scanned negatives of 70mm film strips showing cloud cover and Earth surface temperature, saved as JPEG 2000 files and archived in TAR files containing about 7 days of images each. This product was produced by NASA, with Dr. L. L. Foshee as Principal Investigator, and is described in the Nimbus II Users' Guide.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical cloud cover patterns based on nighttime infrared brightness temperature images.
• Study Earth surface temperature variations in 1966 based on the 3.5 to 4.1 micron spectral data.
• Map geographic temperature and cloud features based on the gridded orbital swath pictures.
• Benchmark early satellite remote sensing techniques based on the HRIR instrument's design and data.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific operational period from May 15, 1966 to November 15, 1966.
• Images are georeferenced, with each orbital swath gridded with geographic coordinates.
• Documentation and processing techniques are described in the Nimbus II Users' Guide.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the 1966 collection period.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Scanned negatives of photofacsimile 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-2 HRIR instrument.

Time Range

May 15, 1966 through November 15, 1966

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:37:43.347150; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Orbital swaths covering a distance approximately from the north pole to the south pole.