MRIRN3IM: Nimbus-3 Satellite Infrared Brightness Temperature Images, 1969-1970

MRIRN3IM is a Nimbus-3 Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer data product from NASA, archived at the GES DISC. It consists of photographic film sheets digitized as JPEG 2000 files, each containing an entire orbit's daytime brightness temperature measurements across five spectral bands from 0.2 to 30 micrometers. The data were collected from April 15, 1969, to February 4, 1970, for studying Earth's heat balance, water vapor, and surface temperatures.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical Earth heat balance based on five-wavelength infrared measurements.
• Study seasonal stratospheric temperature changes based on the 14.5-15.5 micrometer band data.
• Map water vapor distribution based on the 6.5-7.0 micrometer band measurements.
• Investigate surface or near-surface temperatures based on the 10-11 micrometer band data.
• Digitize and process historical orbital imagery based on the provided latitude grids and time annotations.

Strengths

• Data covers five specific infrared wavelength bands (6.5-7.0, 10-11, 14.5-15.5, 5-30, and 0.2-4.0 micrometers).
• Collection period is precisely defined from April 15, 1969, to February 4, —1970.
• Includes associated metadata such as latitude grids, time, and temperature gray scales.
• Referenced documentation is available in the 'Nimbus III Users' Guide' section 4.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is stored in a mix of archival formats (GZ, BIN, ISO, TAR) requiring specific tools for extraction.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Measured by the Nimbus-3 Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (MRIR) experiment.

Time Range

April 15, 1969 to February 4, 1970

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:19:54.381785; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite orbits.