The Nimbus meteorological satellite program.
Nimbus I spacecraft overall characteristics, performance and major subsystems, particularly performance of meteorological sensors
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Nimbus I spacecraft overall characteristics, performance and major subsystems, particularly performance of meteorological sensors
Nimbus 5 satellite data and its use to study climate and develop climate model experiments are examined. Data cover: (1) physical basis for understanding long range and climate monitoring and prediction problem, (2) delineating energy loss to space between contributions from land, ocean, and atmosphere, (3) temporal and spatial distribution in earth's energy budget and its variations due to global cloud fields, and (4) studies of the frequency of occurrence of precipitation over ocean areas.
Space environment influence on Nimbus satellite component design and lubricants
A Nimbus-7 Cloud Data Processing Team was established in 1982 in order to implement cloud-related studies for as long as the spacecraft's Temperature Humidity IR radiometer and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer continue to operate. It will soon be possible to correlate the Nimbus-7 cloud cover information with International Satellite Cloud Climatology results. The production of validated Nimbus-7 cloud products was scheduled to begin in November, 1983; each year of Nimbus-7 cloud data should take about four months to produce.
Nimbus satellite component and materials environmental investigations, failure analyses, and quality control procedures
Nimbus satellite - spacecraft, subsystems, and launch vehicle
High resolution IR radiometer on Nimbus I satellite for providing detailed night cold information
Nimbus satellite high resolution infrared photographic data analysis
Preliminary design of spacecraft configuration and performance analysis of passive attitude control subsystem for gravity gradient stabilized Nimbus satellite
It is desired that the Nimbus meteorological satellite always cross the equator around local noon and, half-an-orbit later, cross the equator in the other direction around local midnight. The application of the phenomenon of nodal regression toward this end is discussed, and an analysis of the parameters angles of inclination, periods, and heights of such "ideal" circular orbits is presented. Also, the relative motion of the apparent versus the fictitious mean sun is briefly discussed.
The paper establishes rms errors in Nimbus 6 satellite data from discrepancies between satellite and rawinsonde data, compares rms errors in Nimbus 6 with those in rawinsonde data, and examines the capability of Nimbus 6 satellite data to depict such quantities as horizontal gradients of basic variables and computed variables such as vorticity and lapse rate of temperature. The capability of Nimbus 6 data is illustrated by comparisons of rms errors in computed variables obtained through a propagation-of-error method with average and near-extreme values of the variables obtained from two of NASA's Atmospheric Variability Experiments (AVE II and AVE IV). It is shown that the rms errors in Nimbus 6 basic variables (temperature, mixing ratio, geopotential height, and wind speed) are between 2 and 12 times larger than the corresponding errors in rawinsonde data. For all variables examined, the magnitude of the rms errors are smaller than the near-extreme values of the variables determined from AVE II and AVE IV data.
Design and operation of ground station for Nimbus weather satellite automatic picture transmission
Evaluation of Nimbus satellite radiation measurements and heat balance charts of earth atmosphere
The unexploited value of the Nimbus meteorological sensor data relates to the satellites' ability for global, temporal, repetitive and uniform tonal and spatial coverage of the earth's surface. Examples are presented illustrating how synoptic views of large areas increase interpretive capability and enable focusing on large targets of interest. The effect of resolution of the Nimbus imaging systems on these observations is discussed, together with the assessment of the areal and temporal magnitude of changes observed by these systems. Two case studies are presented exemplifying the satellites' ability for repetitive observations enabling phenomena to be monitored under special conditions. One study deals with changes observed in the Antarctic ice conditions utilizing the Nimbus 2 and 3 television picture data. The other study deals with terrestrial changes in the Mississippi River Valley and the Niger River Valley (Africa), observed primarily in the 0.7 to 1.3 micron spectral band.
Global stratospheric infrared radiation patterns measured by Nimbus 2 satellite
The SAM-2 will fly aboard the Nimbus-G satellite for launch in the fall of 1978 and measure stratospheric vertical profiles of aerosol extinction in high latitude bands. The plan gives details of the location and times for the simultaneous satellite/correlative measurements for the nominal launch time, the rationale and choice of the correlative sensors, their characteristics and expected accuracies, and the conversion of their data to extinction profiles. The SAM-2 expected instrument performance and data inversion results are presented. Various atmospheric models representative of polar stratospheric aerosols are used in the SAM-2 and correlative sensor analyses.
The microwave spectrometer on the Nimbus 5 earth observatory satellite has been used to measure thermal radiation in five frequency bands between 22.235 and 58.8 GHz. Clouds were observed to affect less than 0.5% of the temperature profile soundings. Most such effects occur in the intertropical convergence zone and alter the inferred temperature profile by less than a few degrees Centigrade. These effects are evident as cold spots at 53.65 GHz and can be identified by virtue of their small spatial extent, in contrast to smooth variations characteristic of normal atmospheric temperature fields. These effects at 53.65 GHz are sufficiently well correlated with inferred liquid water abundances that they can be used for detecting major storm systems over both land and sea.
Flight performance, system integration, and test program for Nimbus II and B spacecraft and launch vehicle