BARREL 3D Rate Counter: Electron Precipitation Measurements from Balloon Campaigns

Over 50 stratospheric balloons were launched across four campaigns from Antarctica and Sweden to measure electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. The BARREL mission, a NASA Living with a Star project, provided rate count data from NaI scintillator diagnostics as 4-second accumulations. These measurements were designed to augment the Van Allen Probes mission by characterizing the spatial and temporal scale of relativistic electron precipitation.

Use Cases

• Analyze electron precipitation rates based on 4-second accumulations of uncalibrated rate counts.
• Study spatial and temporal variations of relativistic electron precipitation based on balloon array measurements across magnetic local time.
• Correlate balloon-based X-ray spectrometer data with in-situ plasma wave and particle measurements from other missions.
• Characterize the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on multi-balloon constellation data.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 balloon payloads launched across four campaigns.
• Measurements were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.
• Provides the first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation alongside comprehensive in-situ data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• 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 03:35:09.682171; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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