HRIR/Nimbus-2 Level 1 Meteorological Radiation Data V001 (HRIRN2L1) at GES DISC

HRIRN2L1 is the High Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) Nimbus-2 Level 1 Meteorological Radiance Data (NMRT) product and contains infrared radiances converted to equivalent black-body temperature or "brightness" temperature values. The data, originally written on IBM 360 machines, were recovered from magnetic tapes, also referred to as Nimbus Meteorological Radiation Tapes (NMRT). The data are archived in their original IBM 36-bit word proprietary format, also referred to as a binary TAP file. The HRIR instrument was designed to perform two major functions: first to map the Earth's cloud cover at night to complement the television coverage during the daytime portion of the orbit, and second to measure the temperature of cloud tops and terrain features. The HRIR instrument was launched on the Nimbus-2 satellite and was operational from May 16, 1966 through November 15, 1966. Dr. L. L. Foshee of the US Army Electronics Command was the Principal Investigator. Measurements taken during daytime do not reveal true surface temperatures since the radiometer operates in the 3.5 to 4.1 micron region, and reflected solar radiation is added to emitted surface radiation. However, reflected sunlight in this spectral region does not saturate the radiometer output and usable pictures can be made. This product was previously available from the NSSDC with the identifier ESAD-00108 (old ID 66-040A-03A).

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated April 13, 2026, 19:34 (UTC)
Created June 2, 2025, 03:26 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 41931da8-3929-4666-9ca1-49d4218e9b4e
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/MJSVF1RELT6J
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-04-06T22:16:00Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash de8063b89437f200e7fa360fbf403d2b09343769e44c6cec0ea88b4d23bc4f5d
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN",[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90}]]
temporal 1966-05-16/1966-11-15
theme {"Earth Science"}