BARREL 2O Ephemeris: Balloon Coordinates for Radiation Belt Precipitation

Over 50 stratospheric balloons launched from Antarctica and Sweden provide 4-second GPS and derived magnetic coordinates. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, collected data during campaigns from 2013 to 2016 to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. Observations were made at altitudes around 30 km near the Antarctic and Arctic circles.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial and temporal variations of electron precipitation based on balloon array data across magnetic local time.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on X-ray spectrometer measurements.
• Correlating balloon magnetic field measurements with ULF-timescale variations mentioned in the description.
• Mapping balloon trajectories to radiation belts using derived magnetic coordinates from the IRBEM library.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon launches across four campaigns.
• Coordinates are recorded at a high temporal resolution of 4 seconds.
• Geographic coordinates are sourced from onboard GPS, and magnetic coordinates are derived using the established IRBEM library.

Limitations

• 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 returned from balloon payloads equipped with GPS and magnetometers.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:44:18.494891; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV base in Antarctica, and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden.