BARREL 4E: Ultra Fast 10 ms X-ray Spectrometer Data

30 channels of ultra fast time resolution, 10 ms, Bremsstrahlung X-ray spectra collected by the BARREL Mission's balloon-borne X-ray spectrometer. The BARREL Mission was a NASA Living with a Star project designed to study electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts, with balloon campaigns conducted from Antarctica in 2013-2014 and Sweden in 2015-2016. The data are in raw format and include an energy variable for each bin.

Use Cases

• Analyzing electron precipitation events based on ultra-fast 10 ms X-ray spectra
• Studying spatial and temporal variations of electron precipitation based on balloon constellation data
• Characterizing the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on the mission's stated purpose
• Correlating X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave and particle data based on the description of comprehensive measurements

Strengths

• Ultra-fast time resolution of 10 milliseconds
• 30 channels of spectral data
• Data collected from over 50 stratospheric balloon flights across four campaigns

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Data are in raw format and not filtered by altitude, requiring altitude checks from separate EPHM files
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured by X-ray spectrometer carried on stratospheric balloons.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:32:39.538057

Geography

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