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Full catalog/NmHRIR1T
NmHRIR1T·v1·dataset

Old grayscale infrared images of Earth (Nimbus)

Nimbus High Resolution Infrared Radiometer Grayscale Swath Data L1, TIFF V001
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 1 TIFF
In plain English

What it measures. Daily grayscale images of Earth made from infrared (heat) measurements, where brighter or darker tones reflect how warm surfaces and cloud tops appeared to the sensor at night.

How it's made. Captured by the High Resolution Infrared Radiometer aboard the early Nimbus 1, 2, and 3 satellites in the 1960s, and converted into TIFF images.

How & where you'd use it. A historical record of nighttime clouds and surface temperatures from the dawn of weather satellites; note the images aren't map-referenced and have gaps.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › INFRARED IMAGERY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1964-08-28 → 1964-09-26
  • Measured byNimbus-1 (HRIR) · Nimbus-2 (HRIR) · Nimbus-3 (HRIR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsTIFF
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This data set consists of daily, global grayscale TIFF images derived from radiative temperatures measured in the 3.4 to 4.2 µm window. These data were detected by the High Resolution Infrared Radiometer (HRIR) on board the Nimbus 1, Nimbus 2, and Nimbus 3 satellites during 1964, 1966, and 1969-1970. The Nimbus HRIR sensor was used to map the earth's nighttime cloud cover and to measure cloud top temperatures or surface temperatures. Note: This data set is not georeferenced and contains some gaps in temporal coverage because of missing data.

Get the data

nmhrir1t_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NmHRIR1T",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.