BARREL Ephemeris: Balloon GPS and Magnetic Coordinates at 4s Resolution

BARREL collected over 50 stratospheric balloon launches from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. The Level 2 ephemeris data provides geographic and magnetic coordinates at 4-second intervals, derived from onboard GPS and the IRBEM library. This NASA mission was designed to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts in coordination with the Van Allen Probes.

Use Cases

• Mapping the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on balloon latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Studying temporal variations in magnetic field perturbations based on derived magnetic coordinates.
• Correlating balloon observations with in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes mission.
• Analyzing balloon constellation evolution across magnetic local time based on the 4-second epoch timestamps.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon launches across four campaigns (2013-2016).
• Coordinates are provided at a high temporal resolution of 4 seconds.
• Geographic coordinates are sourced from onboard GPS, and magnetic coordinates are derived using the authoritative IRBEM library.

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 analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Coordinates obtained from onboard GPS units on stratospheric balloons and derived using the IRBEM FORTRAN library.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:13:33.842995; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Launch sites in Antarctica (Halley Bay, SANAE IV) and Sweden (Esrange Space Center, Kiruna).