BARREL 1N: Balloon Housekeeping Voltage, Temperature, Current, and Status, 40 s Data

Housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values recorded every 40 seconds by the BARREL balloon mission. The BARREL mission was a NASA Living with a Star investigation that launched over 50 stratospheric balloons from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016 to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. Data collection was coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.

Use Cases

• Monitor instrument health and operational status based on housekeeping voltage and current readings.
• Analyze environmental conditions during balloon flights based on temperature sensor data.
• Correlate payload status with X-ray spectrometer and magnetometer measurements for event analysis.
• Study temporal variations in balloon-borne measurements based on the 40-second sampling interval.

Strengths

• Data is part of a coordinated NASA mission designed to augment the Van Allen Probes.
• Over 50 balloon flights were conducted across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016.
• Records multiple physical parameters (voltage, temperature, current, status) at a consistent 40-second cadence.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes analog sensor data is based on a nominal layout, and some payloads may have small differences not reflected.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by instrumentation on BARREL stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:06:13.033497; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV base in Antarctica, and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden.