BARREL 4H: Balloon Housekeeping Voltage, Temperature, Current, and Status Data

Housekeeping voltage, temperature, current, and payload status values recorded every 40 seconds by the BARREL mission's stratospheric balloons. The BARREL mission was a NASA Living with a Star investigation that launched over 50 balloons from Antarctica and Sweden between 2013 and 2016 to study electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts. Data collection was coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal variations in housekeeping parameters like voltage and temperature based on the 40-second sampling rate.
• Studying correlations between balloon payload status and relativistic electron precipitation events mentioned in the description.
• Modeling spatial scales of electron precipitation using data from the balloon array spread across magnetic local time.
• Validating in-situ measurements from the Van Allen Probes mission using the balloon-based X-ray spectrometer data described.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 stratospheric balloon flights across four campaigns from 2013 to 2016.
• Measurements were coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other instruments, providing context.
• 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.
• 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

Recorded by instruments on small stratospheric balloons launched from Antarctica and Sweden.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 11:17:54.709005; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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