BARREL: Balloon Mission Housekeeping Data for Radiation Belt Studies

Over 50 stratospheric balloons launched between 2013 and 2016 collected housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values every 40 seconds. The BARREL 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. Observations were made from Antarctic and Arctic launch sites at stratospheric altitudes of about 30 km.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal variations in payload status based on the 40-second sampling interval
• Study correlations between housekeeping voltages, temperatures, and currents for instrument health monitoring
• Model spatial scales of relativistic electron precipitation based on the multi-balloon constellation data
• Coordinate balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes mission

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016
• Observations coordinated with the comprehensive Van Allen Probes satellite mission
• Provides first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation with concurrent in-situ wave and particle data

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 approximately 20 kg stratospheric balloons launched successively.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 04:41:13.883168; freshness should be verified

Geography

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