BARREL 1H Ephemeris: Balloon GPS and Magnetic Coordinates at 4-Second Intervals

Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016 in Antarctica and Sweden. The dataset provides geographic and magnetic coordinates, including balloon epoch time, latitude, longitude, and altitude, recorded every 4 seconds by the NASA BARREL mission. This mission was designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts in coordination with the Van Allen Probes.

Use Cases

• Analyze relativistic electron precipitation events based on the balloon's geographic and magnetic coordinate time series.
• Study spatial and temporal variations in radiation belt losses based on the multi-balloon array data collected across magnetic local time.
• Correlate balloon-based X-ray spectrometer measurements with in-situ satellite data based on the coordinated campaign design.
• Characterize the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on the balloon constellation measurements.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns, providing multiple observational windows.
• Coordinates are derived from onboard GPS and the IRBEM library, suggesting a defined processing methodology.
• Campaigns were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes and other ground/space instruments, enabling multi-instrument studies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:23:10.213170; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV base in Antarctica, and the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden; observations near Antarctic and Arctic circles at stratospheric altitudes.