THIRN6L1CH67: Nimbus-6 Satellite Water Vapor Radiometer Data

Nimbus-6 satellite's Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) Level 1 data contains radiances expressed as equivalent brightness temperature measured in the 6.7 micron water vapor channel. The instrument provides information on upper troposphere and stratosphere water vapor content and the location of jet streams and frontal systems, with a nadir resolution of 22 km. This dataset continues measurements from earlier Nimbus missions and is archived in its original IBM 36-bit proprietary binary format.

Use Cases

• Analyzing historical upper tropospheric water vapor content based on 6.7 micron channel radiances.
• Tracking the location of jet streams and frontal systems from 1970s satellite observations.
• Calibrating or validating climate models with legacy infrared radiometer data.
• Studying the evolution of satellite remote sensing technology and data formats.

Strengths

• Provides specific historical data from a well-documented NASA satellite mission launched on June 18, 1975.
• Offers high-resolution information for its era, with a nadir resolution of 22 km for the water vapor channel.

Limitations

• Data is archived in an original IBM 36-bit proprietary binary format (TAP file), which presents a significant accessibility hurdle.
• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1977 vs. 2026) create uncertainty about the provenance and maintenance status of the digital record.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center. Principal Investigator: Andrew W. McCulloch.

Collection Method

Data originally written on IBM 360 machines and recovered from magnetic tapes (Nimbus Meteorological Radiation Tapes).

Time Range

Data collection began after the Nimbus-6 satellite launch on June 18, 1975; specific end date is unknown.

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:45:39.732200 (from datagov, though this may reflect a metadata refresh rather than data update)

Geography

Global coverage from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.