HRIR/Nimbus-3 Images of Daytime and Nighttime Brightness Temperature on 70 mm Film V001 (H

Scanned negatives of 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-3 High-Resolution Infrared Radiometer, containing orbital images of daytime and nighttime brightness temperature. The data, operational from April 22, 1969 through January 31, 1970, was designed to map Earth's cloud cover at night and measure temperatures of cloud tops and terrain. Images are saved as JPEG 2000 files, with about 7 days of data archived per TAR file, and were produced by the Goddard Space Flight Center under Principal Investigator G. Thomas Cherrix.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical cloud cover patterns based on infrared brightness temperature imagery.
• Study Earth's surface temperature variations from the late 1960s based on orbital swath data.
• Train models for cloud detection and classification based on scanned film imagery.
• Conduct comparative studies of daytime (0.7-1.3 microns) and nighttime (3.4-4.2 microns) spectral data.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific operational period from April 22, 1969 to January 31, 1970.
• Images are georeferenced, with each orbital swath gridded with geographic coordinates.
• Processing techniques and full data description are documented in the 'Nimbus III Users' Guide'.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is derived from scanned film negatives, which may introduce artifacts compared to modern digital sensors.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center.

Collection Method

Scanned negatives of photofacsimile 70mm film strips from the Nimbus-3 HRIR instrument.

Time Range

April 22, 1969 through January 31, 1970.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:37:03.991254; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Orbital swaths covering approximately from the south pole to the north pole (day) and north pole to south pole (night).