BARREL 3B Rate Counter: Balloon-Based Radiation Belt Electron Precipitation, 4 s Data

BARREL 3B Rate Counter data consists of 4-second accumulations of uncalibrated rate counts from NaI scintillator diagnostics. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, launched over 50 stratospheric balloons from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016 to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. Measurements were taken at altitudes near 30 km to provide spatial and temporal data on relativistic electron precipitation.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal variations in electron precipitation based on 4-second rate count accumulations.
• Study spatial scales of relativistic electron precipitation based on multi-balloon constellation measurements.
• Correlate balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes mission.
• Investigate magnetic local time (MLT) dependencies of radiation belt losses based on the balloon array design.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon flights across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016.
• Measurements coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground/space-based instruments.
• Provides first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation with concurrent in-situ wave and particle data.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Measurements from rate counters on BARREL stratospheric balloons carrying X-ray spectrometers and magnetometers.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 12:16:35.933385; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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