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ESMR/Nimbus-5 Images of Brightness Temperature on 70 mm Film V001 (ESMRN5IM) at GES DISC

Metadata Updated: April 11, 2025

ESMRN5IM is the Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) data product containing daily brightness temperature images from 70-mm photofacsimile film strips. Each frame contains a geographic grid and two groups of three parallel strips of imagery, each containing one-half the orbital data. The spatial coverage is identical in each group, but each strip has a different dynamic range for its gray scale: 100-200 K, 190-270 K, and 250-300 K, respectively. The spatial resolution is 25 x 25 km near nadir, degrading to 160 km cross-track by 45 km down-track at the ends of the scan. The images are saved as JPEG 2000 digital files. About 2 weeks of images are archived into a TAR file. Additional information can be found in "The Nimbus 5 User's Guide."

The primary objectives of the ESMR experiment were: (1) to derive the liquid water content of clouds from brightness temperatures over oceans, (2) to observe differences between sea ice and the open sea over the polar caps, and (3) to test the feasibility of inferring surface composition and soil moisture. To accomplish these objectives, the ESMR was capable of continuous global mapping of the 1.55-cm (19.36 GHz) microwave radiation emitted by the earth/atmosphere system, and could function even in the presence of cloud conditions that block conventional satellite infrared sensors. The ESMR instrument made measurements from Dec. 11, 1972 until May 16, 1977.

This product was previously available from the NSSDC with the identifier ESAD-00192 (old ID 72-097A-04C).

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
Metadata Updated Date April 11, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date November 12, 2020
Metadata Updated Date April 11, 2025
Publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/GESDISC
Maintainer
Identifier C1273652164-GES_DISC
Data First Published 2014-05-12
Language en-US
Data Last Modified 2025-03-31
Category Nimbus, geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id e79a58fe-eacc-474b-87cc-515db60b3059
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov:443/search/concepts/C1273652164-GES_DISC.html
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0
Program Code 026:001
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 8715dbd5b4c5bda212b3be86ec533430b907f7f340a53409fb42e902ab27600d
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 1972-12-11T00:00:00Z/1973-05-09T23:59:59.999Z

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