Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmin41a1108g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #IN41A-1108
Other
[0750] Cryosphere / Sea Ice, [1637] Global Change / Regional Climate Change, [1912] Informatics / Data Management, Preservation, Rescue, [1914] Informatics / Data Mining
Scientific paper
A critical need in climate research is to obtain continuous high quality data records and images as far back in time as is practical. Nimbus I collected data from 8/28/1964- 9/22/1964. Nimbus II collected data from 5/15/1966-1/18/1969. Nimbus III collected data from 4/14/1969-1/22/1972. Data coverage was global with twice daily. Unfortunately it now appears the original recorded data was stored on two inch Ampex tape media which was erased along with 200,000 other tapes due to a media shortage in the 1970's. This original data contained all the timings and calibration data needed to geo-rectify the data. Fortunately NASA Goddard saved and rescued a later version of the data and this data, without the timings and calibration. This data is now available. An effort underway at the NASA Ames Research Center is the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP). This project has obtained the original first generation 2” Ampex analog instrumentation tapes of the approximately 1748 images taken of the Moon. In this data set two images of the Earth (August 23, 1966, and August 10, 1967) were taken with approximately 5-kilometer resolution. These 570-700 nanometer band images have astounding resolution when considering the 330,000-kilometer distance to the Earth. The LOIRP project has obtained the last surviving Ampex FR-900 tape drives. The Nimbus II and III images were also broadcast from the spacecraft and stored on the same instrumentation tape drives. An opportunity has arisen to obtain the first generation Nimbus II and III images if the duplicate tapes mentioned in the Nimbus literature can be found. An initial search was unsuccessful due the above mentioned tape reuse in the 70’s. However, further research indicates that some of the duplicate tapes may be found at other National Records Center repositories. In further research the co-authors have found other Nimbus II and III era images from the Apollo human spaceflight program. All of the Apollo earth orbiting (Apollo 7 and 9, October 19, 1968 and March 3-13 1969) as well as the Lunar Missions (Apollo 8, 10-12, 14-17) obtained high resolution, high quality visible light color and black and white images of the Earth. The co-authors are in the process of matching the timing between the Apollo images and the Nimbus images in order to provide quality data regarding the state of the Arctic and Antarctic ice pack during this era. The value of obtaining the original Nimbus images as well as the mixed Nimbus/Apollo imagery is to provide images and data to help move back in time the state of the Arctic and Antarctic ice pack to provide a longer term record of space based images of these regions of the Earth. Future efforts would also integrate these images with National Security spacecraft that also imaged these areas during that time period.
Epps A.
Gallaher D. W.
Meier Walt
Wingo D. R.
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