BARREL 2T Rate Counter: Balloon-Based Radiation Belt Electron Precipitation Diagnostics

Rate counter measurements from the BARREL balloon mission, providing 4-second accumulations of uncalibrated diagnostic counts. The BARREL mission was a NASA Living with a Star project that launched over 50 stratospheric balloons from Antarctica (2013-2014) and Sweden (2015-2016) to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. Data was collected to characterize the spatial and temporal scale of relativistic electron precipitation, coordinating with the Van Allen Probes mission.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal patterns of electron precipitation based on 4-second rate count accumulations.
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes mission.
• Studying the spatial scale of relativistic energy precipitation across magnetic local time.
• Investigating diagnostic instrument behavior, including data wrapping near or above 16384 counts/s.

Strengths

• Data originates from a coordinated NASA mission involving over 50 balloon launches.
• Provides measurements across four distinct campaigns spanning 2013 to 2016.
• Designed to complement comprehensive in-situ measurements from the Van Allen Probes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data values are uncalibrated and may wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from rate counters on BARREL stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:45:28.910477; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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