BARREL 2B Rate Counter: 4-Second Accumulations of Electron Precipitation Diagnostics

Four balloon campaigns from 2013 to 2016 collected over 50 stratospheric balloon flights measuring relativistic electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. The data consists of 4-second accumulations of rate counter diagnostics from NaI scintillators, with uncalibrated energy ranges, collected by NASA's BARREL mission. The mission was designed to coordinate with the Van Allen Probes and other ground-based instruments.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal variations of electron precipitation based on 4-second rate count accumulations.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on multi-balloon array data.
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave and particle data from the Van Allen Probes.
• Studying ULF-timescale magnetic field variations using the DC magnetometer data mentioned in the mission description.

Strengths

• Data spans four campaigns from 2013 to 2016, providing multi-year coverage.
• Over 50 stratospheric balloon flights were launched, creating an extensive observational array.
• Mission was designed for coordinated measurements with the Van Allen Probes and other instruments.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from rate counters on stratospheric balloons launched from Antarctica and Sweden.

Time Range

2013 to 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 04:36:12.451121; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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