BARREL 2A: Balloon Housekeeping Voltage, Temperature, Current, and Status

Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star investigation, collected housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values every 40 seconds to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts. Data was gathered from balloon campaigns in Antarctica and Sweden, coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission.

Use Cases

• Monitoring instrument health and environmental conditions based on voltage, temperature, and current readings
• Studying temporal variations in electron precipitation events based on payload status and sensor data
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave data from other missions
• Characterizing the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on multi-balloon array data

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns, providing multiple observational periods
• Values returned at a consistent 40-second cadence, enabling time-series analysis
• Mission was coordinated with the Van Allen Probes and other ground/space-based instruments for cross-validation

Limitations

• Analog sensor data is based on a nominal layout; some payloads had small differences not reflected here
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected from instrument payloads on stratospheric balloons launched during dedicated campaigns.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 04:02:39.612810; freshness should be verified

Geography

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