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

BARREL was a NASA Living with a Star mission using over 50 stratospheric balloons to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. This Level 2 dataset provides housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values recorded every 40 seconds by instruments on those balloons. The data was collected during campaigns from Antarctica in 2013-2014 and Sweden in 2015-2016.

Use Cases

• Monitor instrument health and performance based on voltage, temperature, and current readings.
• Study temporal variations in the stratospheric environment based on 40-second time-series data.
• Correlate payload status with X-ray spectrometer and magnetometer measurements mentioned in the mission description.
• Analyze spatial patterns of relativistic electron precipitation across balloon arrays spanning six hours of magnetic local time.

Strengths

• Data is part of a coordinated NASA mission designed to augment the Van Allen Probes.
• Over 50 balloon flights were launched across four campaigns, providing multiple observation points.
• Records are collected at a regular 40-second cadence, enabling time-series analysis.

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 payloads may have small differences not reflected.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by instruments on BARREL stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:33:36.132326; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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