BARREL 1K: Magnetic Field Measurements from Stratospheric Balloons

BARREL was a NASA Living with a Star Mission of Opportunity designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts. Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. The dataset contains three-axis DC magnetometer data at 0.25-second resolution, providing measurements of ULF-timescale magnetic field variations.

Use Cases

• Analyze ULF-timescale magnetic field variations based on tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer measurements
• Study spatial and temporal patterns of electron precipitation based on coordinated balloon and satellite observations
• Characterize the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on balloon array measurements across magnetic local time
• Correlate magnetic field data with X-ray spectrometer measurements from the same payloads

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon launches across four campaigns
• Provides measurements at stratospheric altitudes (~30 km) near polar regions
• Coordinated with multiple satellite missions and ground-based instruments

Limitations

• Data are neither gain corrected nor despun, which may require additional processing
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected from DC magnetometers on stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:19:30.203023; freshness should be verified

Geography

Launches from Halley Bay, Antarctica; SANAE IV base, Antarctica; and Esrange Space Center, Kiruna, Sweden.