BARREL 1O Ephemeris: Balloon GPS and Magnetic Coordinates

BARREL 1O Ephemeris Level 2 data provides geographic and magnetic coordinates for stratospheric balloons. The data includes balloon epoch time, latitude, longitude, and altitude recorded every 4 seconds from GPS and derived via the IRBEM library. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, launched over 50 balloons from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016 to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts.

Use Cases

• Mapping relativistic electron precipitation events based on balloon location and X-ray spectrometer data mentioned in the description
• Analyzing spatial and temporal variations of electron loss from the radiation belts based on the multi-balloon array design
• Correlating balloon magnetic coordinate data with ground-based and space-based instruments like the Van Allen Probes
• Studying the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies using the balloon constellation measurements

Strengths

• Data is collected at a high temporal resolution of 4 seconds per measurement
• Coordinates are derived from two sources: onboard GPS and the IRBEM magnetic modeling library
• Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data files are in specialized formats (BIN, PDF, TEXT, HTML) which may require specific tools for analysis

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected from onboard GPS and magnetometers on stratospheric balloons, with magnetic coordinates derived using the IRBEM FORTRAN library.

Time Range

Campaigns conducted in January-February 2013 and 2014, and August 2015 and 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:16:04.774049; freshness should be verified

Geography

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