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

Rate counter measurements from the BARREL balloon mission designed to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. The data consist of 4-second accumulations of counts from NaI scintillator diagnostics, collected during campaigns from 2013 to 2016 in Antarctica and Sweden. The mission was a NASA Living with a Star project coordinated with the Van Allen Probes and other instruments.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal variations in electron precipitation based on 4-second rate count accumulations.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation events 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 collected from over 50 stratospheric balloon flights across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016.
• Provides the first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation coordinated with comprehensive in-situ measurements.
• Campaigns were designed to maintain an array of about five payloads spread across six hours of magnetic local time.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Rate count data are diagnostic, 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 and X-ray spectrometers carried on stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13:20:55.235838; 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).