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HIRS/Nimbus-6 Images of Brightness Temperature on 70 mm Film V001 (HIRSN6IM) at GES DISC

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

The HIRSN6IM data product consists of images of brightness temperatures on 70 mm film strips from the Nimbus-6 High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder. Each display contains black and white images at either full vertical scale (F) or partial vertical scale (P). A full scale mode image will contain one orbit of data or 125 minutes of data, while a partial scale mode image will contain twice the vertical scale and thus requires two images for an orbit of data (the last 60 minutes on the first image, P1 and the remaining data on the second image, P2). There are 10 channels (swaths) for an orbit on each image, with a header identifying the channel (1-1, 6-6, etc.). An 18-step gray scale is found at the bottom. Time and geographic information is encoded in the center of the image. Conversion from the 18-step gray scale to brightness temperatures can be found in a table in each of the first six volumes of "The Nimbus 6 Data Catalog."The HIRS experiment on Nimbus-6 is a follow on to the successful Nimbus-5 ITPR experiment. HIRS was a multi-channel filter radiometer with a Cassegrain telescope before the chopper assembly. The instrument scans in the cross track direction with 21 scans on each side of the subtrack point with about 30 km x 55 km resolution at nadir. HIRS measured radiances primarily in five spectral regions: (1) seven channels near the 15-micrometer CO2 absorption band, (2) two channels (11.1 and 3.7 micrometers) in the IR window, (3) two channels (8.2 and 6.7 micrometers) in the water vapor absorption band, (4) five channels in the 4.3-micrometer band, and (5) one channel in the visible 0.69-micrometer region.The HIRS Principal Investigator was Mr. W. L. Smith from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite Service. The Nimbus-6 HIRS data are available from August 17, 1975 (day of year 229) through March 4, 1976 (day of year 238).These data were previously archived at NASA NSSDC under the entry ID ESAD-00094 (old id 75-052A-02A).

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 April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/9WU2QOOK6100
Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
Category Earth Science
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 3dbdd565-3b6f-4bd3-b079-224ad8887955
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://docserver.gesdisc.eosdis.nasa.gov/public/project/Images/HIRSN6IM_001.jpg
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash cc17d3d139179248c63391a936bb8a98bf561a6924e5a4134d39d2a5ffc30b5f
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 1975-06-13/1975-06-13

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