TIROS-3 L1ORT: Satellite Earth Radiation Budget Temperatures

TIROS-3 Low-Resolution Omnidirectional Radiometer Level 1 Temperature Data contains black and white sensor temperature values in degrees Celsius from a 1961 satellite experiment. The data were designed to measure solar energy absorbed, reflected, and emitted by Earth and its atmosphere to calculate the Earth's radiation budget. The original data were recovered from magnetic tapes and are archived in their original text format.

Use Cases

• Calculating Earth's radiation budget based on measured solar energy absorption and emission
• Analyzing historical atmospheric temperature trends from early satellite sensor data
• Studying instrument performance of bolometer-based radiometers on spinning spacecraft
• Comparing radiation budget measurements across TIROS-3, TIROS-4, TIROS-7, and Explorer-7 satellites

Strengths

• Data has a specific historical origin, recovered from original IBM 7094 magnetic tapes
• Experiment was designed by a known Principal Investigator, Verner E. Suomi from the University of Wisconsin
• Dataset represents a foundational measurement for Earth's radiation budget studies

Limitations

• Column names and data structure are unknown, limiting direct analysis
• Sources conflict on last updated date (1961 vs 2026), indicating metadata inconsistency
• Data coverage is limited to about three months from the TIROS-3 mission in 1961

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC, recovered from NSSDC identifier ESAD-00187 (old id 61-017A-01A)

Collection Method

Originally written on IBM 7094 machines and recovered from Omnidirectional Radiometer Temperature (ORT) tapes

Time Range

Approximately three months following satellite launch on July 12, 1961

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:32:22.884995

Geography

Global, from the TIROS-3 satellite orbit