Nimbus-2 Nighttime Infrared Brightness Temperature Images from 1966

HRIRN2IM contains scanned negatives of 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-2 High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR). The images provide orbital nighttime brightness temperature values in the 3.5 to 4.1 micron range, showing cloud cover and surface temperatures from May to November 1966. Dr. L. L. Foshee of the US Army Electronics Command was the Principal Investigator for this data product, which is archived by the GES DISC.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical cloud cover distribution at night using the gridded brightness temperature images.
• Study Earth's surface temperature patterns from 1966 by examining the infrared radiometry values in the 3.5 to 4.1 micron band.
• Map geographic features and cloud top temperatures from the orbital swath pictures covering polar regions.
• Validate or calibrate climate models with historical infrared brightness temperature data from a defined 6-month period.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific 6-month operational period from May 15 to November 15, 1966.
• Images are georeferenced with geographic coordinate grids overlaying each orbital swath.
• Archival format organizes approximately 7 days of images into single TAR files.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to a single 6-month period in 1966.
• Data is derived from scanned film negatives, which may introduce artifacts compared to direct digital capture.
• Spatial resolution and radiometric precision are constrained by 1960s satellite sensor technology.

Provenance

Source

GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center), originally from NSSDC with identifier ESAD-00226.

Collection Method

Data was collected by the HRIR instrument on the Nimbus-2 satellite and processed into scanned photofacsimile film strips.

Time Range

May 15, 1966 through November 15, 1966.

Freshness

1966-11-15

Geography

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