THIRN4IMCH67: Nimbus-4 Satellite Infrared Imagery from 1970-1971

Global orbital swaths from the Nimbus-4 satellite's Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) instrument. The dataset consists of daily montages of brightness temperatures measured at 6.7 microns, originally recorded on 70 mm photofacsimile film strips and now digitized as JPEG 2000 files. Measurements were taken from April 18, 1970, to April 8, 1971, with a ground resolution of 22.6 km at nadir, and were designed to map cloudtop temperatures and upper-tropospheric water vapor distribution.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical cloudtop temperature patterns based on the 10.5-12.5 micrometer infrared window channel data.
• Mapping upper-tropospheric water vapor distribution from nighttime 6.5-7.0 micrometer channel measurements.
• Studying the evolution of satellite-based Earth observation by comparing early Nimbus-4 imagery with modern sensor data.
• Georeferencing and analyzing historical orbital swaths using the gridded geographic coordinates on each film strip.

Strengths

• Provides a specific, historically significant temporal coverage from April 18, 1970, to April 8, 1971.
• Offers geospatial data with a defined ground resolution of 22.6 km at nadir and geographic coordinate grids.
• Contains data from a well-documented NASA mission, with references to 'The Nimbus IV User's Guide'.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column structure is unavailable across all sources.
• The dataset's freshness is conflicted: one source lists a last update in 2026, while another cites the original 1970 date, suggesting potential metadata inconsistencies.
• The data is stored in a legacy format (JPEG 2000 files archived in weekly TAR files), which may require specific tools for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected by the Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) instrument aboard the Nimbus-4 satellite.

Time Range

April 18, 1970, to April 8, 1971

Freshness

Conflicting: One source lists last updated as 2026-04-09, another as 1970-06-06.

Geography

Global, with pole-to-pole orbital swaths.