BARREL 3E: Balloon Housekeeping Voltage, Temperature, Current, and Status Data

Housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values returned every 40 seconds from the BARREL mission's balloon campaigns. The BARREL Mission was a NASA Living with a Star Mission of Opportunity designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts, launching over 50 balloons from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016. Data collection was coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.

Use Cases

• Monitoring instrument health and environmental conditions based on voltage, temperature, and current readings
• Analyzing payload status trends over time to correlate with scientific events
• Studying the operational context of X-ray spectrometer and magnetometer measurements
• Investigating the spatial and temporal variations of electron precipitation from the radiation belts

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 stratospheric balloon launches across four campaigns
• Values recorded at a consistent 40-second interval
• Mission coordinated with comprehensive in-situ measurements from the Van Allen Probes

Limitations

• Analog sensor data is based on a nominal layout; some payloads may have small differences not reflected
• 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

Data collected from instrumentation on BARREL mission balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:34:07.247964; freshness should be verified

Geography

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