Introduction to the Nimbus Meteorological Satellite Program

The Nimbus program is the nation's major research and development satellite program aimed at developing and exploiting space technology for meteorological and other application purposes. The program envisioned, and has achieved, the development of a series of large amply powered earth-stabilized spacecraft which use a near-polar circular orbit at the 600-nmi height to provide full earth coverage each day of operation. Some of the technological and scientific achievements of the Nimbus program are noted as follows: 1) first capability for high-resolution global mapping of the earth cloud cover from space by means of TV and IR techniques; 2) development of an automatic picture-taking system providing global coverage day and night and for providing cloud-cover data in an operational mode to local users; 3) first large spacecraft to fly a radioisotopic thermoelectric generator for in-orbit power generation; 4) the flight of sounder instrumentation to measure atmospheric temperatures and humidity profiles on a global basis; 5) first orbiting experiment to successfully locate, interrogate, and gather data from remote platforms located on the earth surface and in the atmosphere. Tracking of balloons have provided first satellite data on atmospheric winds.