THIRN6L1CH67 is the Nimbus-6 Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) Level 1 Meteorological Radiation Data at 6.7 microns product and contains radiances expressed in units of equivalent brightness temperature measured in the 6.7 micron (water vapor) channel. The data, originally written on IBM 360 machines, were recovered from magnetic tapes, also referred to as Nimbus Meteorological Radiation Tapes (NMRT-THIR). The data are archived in their original IBM 36-bit word proprietary format, also referred to as a binary TAP file.
The Nimbus-6 satellite was successfully launched on June 18, 1975. The Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer (THIR) experiment on Nimbus-6 continues the measurements made by its predecessors flown on Nimbus-4 and Nimbus-5. The THIR instrument is a two channel high resolution scanning radiometer designed to perform two major functions:
1) The 11.5-12.5 micron channel provides both day and night cloud top or surface temperatures, with a resolution at nadir of 8 km, and operates day and night.
2) The 6.7 micron channel gives information on the water vapor content of the upper troposphere and stratosphere and the location of jet streams and frontal systems, with a resolution at nadir of 22 km, and operates mostly at night.
The THIR Principal Investigator was Andrew W. McCulloch from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This product was previously available from the NSSDC with the identifier ESAD-00164 (old ID 75-052A-12D).