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- [Source: National Space Science Data Center, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=1964-052A-02 ]
The Nimbus 1 Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) system was a camera and transmitter combination designed to transmit local daytime, slow-scan television pictures of cloudcover conditions to properly equipped ground receiving stations on a real-time basis. The camera used a 108-deg wide-angle f/1.8 objective lens with a focal length of 5.7 mm. The camera was mounted facing earthward on the H-frame inside the sensory ring, with its optical axis parallel to the spacecraft spin axis. The actual picture taking required 8 s and the transmission 200 s. Earth-cloud images retained on the photo-sensitive surface of the 2.54-cm-diameter vidicon were read out at four lines per second to produce an 800-line picture. A 5-W TV transmitter (136.95 MHz) relayed the pictures to local APT stations within communication range. The faceplate of the vidicon had reticle marks that appeared on the picture format to aid in relating the picture to its geographical position on the earth's surface. At the nominal satellite altitude, a picture covered approximately a 1660- by 1660-km square with a horizontal resolution of around 3 km at nadir. The experiment supplied over 1600 high-quality cloudcover pictures to participating APT stations during the spacecraft's 3.5-week lifetime. It proved the capability of weather satellites to provide high-quality daytime local cloudcover data to operational meteorologists on an essentially real-time basis. Its success bolstered the decision to include such instrumentation in the TIROS Operational System (TOS). For more detailed information of the experiment, see "APT Users' Guide" (TRF B04499), available from NSSDC. APT data are primarily intended for operational use within the local APT acquisition station and are generally not available for distribution.
Group: Instrument_Details
Entry_ID: APT NIMBUS-1
Group: Instrument_Identification
Instrument_Category: Earth Remote Sensing Instruments
Instrument_Class: Passive Remote Sensing
Instrument_Type: Photon/Optical Detectors
Instrument_Subtype: Cameras
Short_Name: APT NIMBUS-1
Long_Name: Automatic Picture Transmission System on NIMBUS-1
End_Group
Group: Associated_Platforms
Short_Name: NIMBUS-1
End_Group
Group: Spectral_Frequency_Information
Wavelength_Keyword: Visible
End_Group
Online_Resource: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=1964-052A-02
Online_Resource: http://nasascience.nasa.gov/missions/nimbus
Online_Resource: http://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/nimbus/
Creation_Date: 2009-07-16
Group: Instrument_Logistics
Instrument_Owner: USA/NASA
End_Group
End_Group
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