BARREL 2W: Balloon Housekeeping Voltage, Temperature, Current, and Status, 40 s Data

Over 50 stratospheric balloon flights were launched across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star investigation, measured electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts using X-ray spectrometers and magnetometers. This dataset provides housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values recorded every 40 seconds.

Use Cases

• Correlating balloon housekeeping sensor readings with Van Allen Probes satellite data to study radiation belt electron losses.
• Analyzing temporal variations in payload status and environmental conditions during multi-balloon constellation operations.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of relativistic electron precipitation based on coordinated balloon array measurements.
• Studying stratospheric magnetic field variations using the DC magnetometer data mentioned in the mission description.

Strengths

• Data originates from a NASA Living with a Star mission, providing authoritative space physics measurements.
• Covers four distinct balloon campaigns from 2013 to 2016, offering multi-year temporal coverage.
• Includes measurements from over 50 balloon flights launched from Antarctic and Swedish stations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description notes analog sensor data is based on a nominal layout, and some payload differences may not be reflected.
• Row count and data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by BARREL balloon payloads carrying X-ray spectrometers and DC magnetometers.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:41:45.501809; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV in Antarctica (2013-2014) and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden (2015-2016).