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TIROS-2 Medium-Resolution Scanning Radiometer Level 1 Final Meteorological Radiation Data V001 (TIROS2L1FMRT) at GES DISC

Metadata Updated: September 18, 2025

TIROS-2 Medium-Resolution Scanning Radiometer Level 1 Final Meteorological Radiation Data (FMRT) product contains radiances expressed in five infrared/visible wavelength regions, expressed in either equivalent blackbody temperature (IR channels 1 and 2) or effective radiant emmitance (visible channels 3 and 5). The data will trace an elliptical, parabolic, or hyperbolic pattern on the ground due to the rotating of the instrument about the satellite spin axis. There is one orbit per file. The data were originally written on IBM 7094 machines, and these have been recovered from magnetic tapes, referred to as the Final Meteorological Radiation Tapes (FMRT). The data are archived in their original IBM 36-bit word proprietary format, also referred to as a binary TAP file.The TIROS-2 satellite was successfully launched on November 23, 1960. The Medium-Resolution Scanning Radiometer experiment successfully returned data for about five months, becoming the first radiometer to make meteorlogical measurements from space. Three follow-on instruments were flown on TIROS-3, -4 and -7. Initially, all channels performed normally. However, channels 1 and 4 gradually deteriorated and by January 1961 were useless. The signal to noise ratio of channels 3 and 5 was extremely low, and the output was highly questionable. The instrument is a five channel radiometer with a 55 km footprint at nadir with the following characteristics:Channel 1: 6.0 to 6.5 microns - water vapor absorptionChannel 2: 8.0 to 12.0 microns - atmospheric windowChannel 3: 0.2 to 6.0 microns - reflected solar radiationChannel 4: 8.0 to 30 microns - terrestial radiationChannel 5: 0.55 to 0.75 microns - response to the TV systemThe Principal Investigator for these data was Joseph D. Barksdale from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This product was previously available from the NSSDC with the identifier ESAD-00113 (old ID 60-016A-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 18, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 18, 2025
Publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/DMDMOR7JSIEG
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 33fcde62-a5fe-48bf-a5ab-2985be9583a9
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/TIROS2L1FMRT_Sample.png
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":66,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-66}
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a2162005a5c4d04713504b8f07598fb1d3c2caf4c8065414e0f61a425543b693
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 1960-11-23/1960-11-23

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