SCRN5L1RAD: Nimbus-5 Satellite Calibrated Radiances

SCRN5L1RAD is the Nimbus-5 Selective Chopper Radiometer Level 1 Calibrated Radiances data product. It provides declouded radiance measurements from 16 channels between 2.3 and 133 micrometers, with a ground resolution of 25 km, covering latitudes from -80 to +80 degrees. The data were used to derive atmospheric temperature profiles up to 50 km altitude, water vapor distribution, and cirrus cloud ice particle density.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical global temperature structure up to 50 km altitude based on calibrated radiance channels.
• Mapping the distribution of atmospheric water vapor using declouded infrared radiance measurements.
• Studying the density of ice particles in cirrus clouds from interpolated and smoothed radiance data.
• Reconstructing near-global atmospheric conditions from 1972-1974 using daily orbital files.

Strengths

• Provides calibrated radiance data from 16 specific spectral channels (2.3 to 133 micrometers).
• Offers a defined spatial coverage (near-global, -80 to +80 degrees latitude) and temporal coverage (13 Dec 1972 to 26 Dec 1974).
• Data has been recovered and preserved from original 9-track tapes, representing a historical record.

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are unknown, stored in a proprietary binary format.
• There is a conflict in metadata freshness: one source lists a 2026 update date, another lists 1974.
• Specific dataset size (rows, file size) is not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC, with original data from the Nimbus-5 SCR experiment led by Dr. John T. Houghton of Oxford University.

Collection Method

Data were recovered from original 9-track tapes and stored as daily files in their original proprietary binary format.

Time Range

13 December 1972 to 26 December 1974.

Freshness

The most recent update date reported is 2026-04-09, but another source indicates the data itself ends in 1974.

Geography

Near-global coverage from latitude -80 to +80 degrees.