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

Antarctic and Arctic stratospheric balloon campaigns collected housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values every 40 seconds. The BARREL Mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, launched over 50 small balloons from Halley Bay, SANAE IV, and Esrange Space Center between 2013 and 2016. Data was used to study electron precipitation from Earth's Radiation Belts in coordination with the Van Allen Probes mission.

Use Cases

• Monitor payload health and operational status based on housekeeping voltage and current readings.
• Analyze environmental conditions during balloon flights based on temperature sensor data.
• Study temporal patterns of relativistic electron precipitation events based on coordinated balloon constellation measurements.
• Correlate balloon-based X-ray spectrometer data with in-situ satellite measurements based on mission coordination.
• Characterize spatial scales of precipitation at relativistic energies based on multi-payload array data.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon launches across four campaigns.
• Values recorded at a consistent 40-second interval.
• Coordinated with comprehensive in-situ measurements from the Van Allen Probes mission.
• Campaigns conducted from specific Antarctic and Arctic stations: Halley Bay, SANAE IV, and Esrange.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes some payload sensor differences may not be reflected in these records.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Instrument readings from balloon-borne X-ray spectrometers and DC magnetometers.

Time Range

Campaigns conducted in January-February 2013, 2014, and August 2015, 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:40:44.800533; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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