BARREL 4D: Balloon Ephemeris Data for Radiation Belt Studies

BARREL 4D Ephemeris data provides geographic and magnetic coordinates for over 50 stratospheric balloons launched between 2013 and 2016. The data was collected by NASA's BARREL mission, a multiple-balloon investigation designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts. Each balloon carried an X-ray spectrometer and magnetometer, providing measurements at stratospheric altitudes near the Antarctic and Arctic circles.

Use Cases

• Modeling electron precipitation spatial scales based on balloon constellation data across magnetic local time
• Correlating stratospheric X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave and particle data from other missions
• Deriving magnetic field variations using coordinates processed with the IRBEM FORTRAN library
• Analyzing temporal patterns of relativistic electron losses based on 4-second epoch time intervals

Strengths

• Data originates from a NASA Living with a Star Mission of Opportunity, providing authoritative measurements
• Coordinates are derived from onboard GPS and the IRBEM library, suggesting a multi-source validation approach
• Over 50 balloon payloads were launched across four campaigns, indicating a substantial observational effort

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks
• File formats include BIN and PDF, which may require specialized tools for data extraction

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected from onboard GPS and magnetometers on stratospheric balloons, processed with the IRBEM FORTRAN library.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:32:51.839214; freshness should be verified

Geography

Launch stations in Antarctica (Halley Bay, SANAE IV) and Sweden (Esrange Space Center), with balloons operating at stratospheric altitudes.