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Description

The Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) data set consists of gridded brightness temperature arrays for the Arctic and Antarctic, spanning 11 December 1972 through 16 May 1977. The ESMR instrument senses horizontally polarized radiation at a frequency of 19 GHz. The data are gridded to a polar stereographic projection at 25 km resolution and adjusted to partially remove instrument drift and sensitivity shifts. Daily data that could not be adjusted are missing from this data set. Data are in 2-byte integer flat-binary format.

Version Description

Version 2 release

Product Summary

Platforms
Nimbus-5
Instruments
ESMR
Spatial Extent

N: -50 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

,

N: 90 S: 50 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
25 Kilometers x 25 Kilometers
Spatial Reference System(s)
Multiple EPSG codes (see User Guide)
Location
ANTARCTICA ,
ARCTIC ,
POLAR
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
1972-12-11 to 1977-05-16
Temporal Resolution
1 Day
Concept ID
C2985421753-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
1683
Processing Level
3
Published
Science Keywords
Brightness Temperature

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Parkinson, C., Comiso, J., & Zwally, H. (1999). Nimbus-5 ESMR Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures, Version 2 [Dataset]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/CIRAYZROIYF9 Date Accessed: 2026-06-08

Documents

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Mapping sea ice concentration using Nimbus-5 ESMR and local dynamical tie points Tellefsen, Emil Haaber, Tonboe, Rasmus Tage, Kolbe, Wiebke Margitta Brightness Temperature
Sea ice detection from persistent single-channel shortwave infrared satellite data Lewis, Nicholas S., Koenig, Lora, Grant, Glenn, Gallaher, David, Schaefer, Kevin, Thompson, Jeffery, Campbell, G. Garrett Brightness Temperature
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