BARREL 2N: Balloon Ephemeris for Radiation Belt Electron Precipitation

Over 50 stratospheric balloons launched from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016 to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, carried X-ray spectrometers and magnetometers at altitudes near 30 km. This Level 2 dataset provides geographic and magnetic coordinates, derived from GPS and the IRBEM library, recorded every 4 seconds.

Use Cases

• Correlating electron precipitation events with in-situ Van Allen Probes measurements based on simultaneous balloon and satellite observations.
• Analyzing spatial scales of relativistic electron precipitation based on multi-balloon array data spread across magnetic local time.
• Studying magnetic field variations at ULF timescales based on onboard DC magnetometer data mentioned in the description.
• Validating radiation belt environment models using derived magnetic coordinates from the IRBEM library.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns, providing substantial observational coverage.
• Coordinates are recorded at a high 4-second temporal resolution, allowing for detailed trajectory analysis.
• Geographic data sourced from onboard GPS and magnetic coordinates derived using the established IRBEM FORTRAN library.

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.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data returned from balloon payloads carrying GPS and magnetometers, with magnetic coordinates derived via the IRBEM library.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 13:06:28.020635; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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