March 15, 1978
Nimbus 1-6
Various meteorological and geophysical remote-sensing instruments and data transmission
and processing techniques have been tested on Nimbus.
Launch date Ended operation Significance
Nimbus 1 August 1964 September 1964 Carried AVCS, APT, and HRIR
First nighttime cloud cover imagery
2 April 1966 November 1966 :
3 April 1969 September 1970 First vertical temperature profile
data of atmosphere on global basis
4 April 1970 one or more
5 December 1972 NEMS and ESMR for vertical temperature
sensors still profiles and sea ice boundaries
through clouds
6 June 1975 operating Most sophisticated weather satellite
to date
ORBIT: Sun-synchronous, nearly polar Coverage: Global, twice daily
Altitude: 1100 km (average) Period: 107 minutes
DESCRIPTION: Butterfly-shaped; 2 solar paddles
3X size and weight of TIROS or ESSA
3 n high by 1.5 m diameter; weight, 373-909 kg
(9
Nimbus 6:
Scanning Microwave
Spectrometer (SCAMS)*
S5-channel radiometer
(improved Nimbus 5 NEMS)
37 gHz
22,234, 31.63,
52.85, 53.85,
55.45 gliz
*operation ended 5/76
High Resolution Infrared
Radiation Sounder (HIRS)
17-channel radiometer
Limb Radiance Inversion
Radiometer (LRIR) 4-channel
multispectral scanning
radiometer
Earth Radiation Budget (ERB)
22-channel radiometer
Pressure Modulated Radiometer
(PMR) 2-channel; transmits
radiance through gas-fiiled
cells
Tropical Wind Energy
Conversion and Reference
level Experiment (TWERLE)
FOR MOKE INFORMATION:
Nimbus S Users Guide
R. R. Sabatini, Editor
NASA/GSFC, 1972, 59 p.
at extremity
145 km at
nadir to
330 km at
extremity
to 25 m
accurate to
1% or less
vertical -
10 kn at ;
nadir; horí-
zontal S00 km
Nimbus 6 Users Guide
J. E. Sissala, Editor
NASA/GSFC, 1976, 59 p.
4
SENSORS:
Wavelength Resolution Measurement
Nimbus 5 and 6:
Temperature Humidity 11.5 m 8.2 km Images of clouds; temperature
Infrared Radiometer of cloud tops, land, and sea
(THIR) ; surface
6.7 m 22 kn Upper troposphere and strato-
; sphere moisture; locate jet
streams and frontal systems
Electrically Scanning single channel 25 x 25 at Thermal microwave radiation
Microwave Radiometer 250-mtiz band nadir to from Earth surface ard atmosphere
(ESMR) centered at 160 x 45 km water content of clouds
distribution of sea ice
Global maps of troposphere
temperature profiles
water vapor, ocean roughness
Surface temperature
vertical atmosphere temperature
profile; vertical humidity profile
Vertical distribution of
temperature, ozone, water
vapor
View Earth and Sun to compute
radiation budget
Atmospheric temperature from
40-85 km ^ltitude
Balloons record temperature,
pressure, altitude, and location
transmit to Nimbus for relay to
500 ground platforms
