BARREL 1V: Balloon Ephemeris with GPS and Magnetic Coordinates, 4-Second Data

Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016 to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. The BARREL 1V Ephemeris dataset provides 4-second time-series data, including GPS-derived geographic coordinates and IRBEM-derived magnetic coordinates, collected at altitudes near 30 km. This NASA Living with a Star mission data was collected in coordination with the Van Allen Probes and other ground-based instruments.

Use Cases

• Modeling magnetic field mapping from the stratosphere to the radiation belts based on derived magnetic coordinates.
• Analyzing temporal patterns of balloon position and altitude for constellation array studies mentioned in the description.
• Correlating X-ray spectrometer and magnetometer measurements with balloon location data for event analysis.
• Studying the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation using the balloon array data collected across magnetic local time.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns, providing multiple observational windows.
• Coordinates are derived from two sources: direct GPS measurements and the IRBEM library for magnetic calculations.
• Observations were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.

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 ML tasks.
• Data files include PDF, HTML, TEXT, and BIN formats, which may require specialized tools for processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from onboard GPS units and derived calculations using the IRBEM FORTRAN library on balloon payloads.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04 04:40:06.342814; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Launch sites in Antarctica (Halley Bay, SANAE IV) and Kiruna, Sweden; observations near Antarctic and Arctic circles.