BARREL 2X Rate Counter: Electron Precipitation Measurements from Balloon Campaigns

BARREL was a NASA Living with a Star Mission of Opportunity designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts. Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016, carrying X-ray spectrometers and magnetometers. The Level 2 data product consists of 4-second accumulations of rate counter measurements, diagnostic fields with uncalibrated energy ranges.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial and temporal variations of electron precipitation based on balloon constellation measurements across magnetic local time.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on X-ray bremsstrahlung measurements.
• Correlating balloon-based precipitation data with in-situ plasma wave and energetic particle measurements from the Van Allen Probes mission.
• Studying ULF-timescale magnetic field variations based on DC magnetometer data mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data spans four balloon campaigns from 2013 to 2016, providing multi-year observations.
• Over 50 stratospheric balloon payloads were launched, offering a spatially distributed measurement array.
• Campaigns were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments like EISCAT.

Limitations

• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• 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

Measurements from rate counters on BARREL balloon payloads.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:39:19.146047; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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