BARREL RCNT: Balloon-Based Radiation Belt Electron Precipitation Diagnostics, 2013-2016

BARREL 1O Rate Counter (RCNT) NaI Scintillator Diagnostics, Level 2, 4 s Data consists of diagnostic rate count measurements from the BARREL multi-balloon mission. The data are 4-second accumulations of counts from X-ray spectrometers carried on over 50 stratospheric balloons launched from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. The mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, was designed to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts in coordination with the Van Allen Probes.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal variations in electron precipitation based on 4-second rate count accumulations.
• Studying the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on multi-balloon constellation measurements.
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave and particle data from the Van Allen Probes.
• Investigating magnetic local time (MLT) dependencies of precipitation using the balloon array data.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns (2013-2016), providing multi-year coverage.
• Measurements were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground/space-based instruments like EISCAT.
• Provides the first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation alongside comprehensive in-situ measurements.

Limitations

• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• 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

Measurements from rate counters on BARREL balloon payloads carrying X-ray spectrometers and DC magnetometers.

Time Range

2013 to 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:03:24.477603; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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