BARREL 1G: Balloon Ephemeris and Magnetic Coordinates at 4-Second Resolution

Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, provides 4-second ephemeris data including GPS-derived geographic coordinates and IRBEM-modeled magnetic coordinates. Observations were collected from Antarctic and Arctic latitudes at altitudes near 30 km between 2013 and 2016.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetic field mapping from the stratosphere to the radiation belts based on derived magnetic coordinates.
• Analyzing temporal and spatial scales of electron precipitation events based on the 4-second time-series data from a balloon array.
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray spectrometer measurements with in-situ satellite data based on the coordinated campaign design.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four distinct campaigns (2013-2016).
• Coordinates are provided at a high 4-second temporal resolution.
• Data is derived from onboard GPS units and the established IRBEM library.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data returned from balloon payloads every 4 seconds, with magnetic coordinates derived using the IRBEM FORTRAN library.

Time Range

Campaigns conducted in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:23:26.716366; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV in Antarctica (2013-2014) and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden (2015-2016).