BARREL Mission: Balloon-Based Radiation Belt Electron Precipitation Measurements

Antarctic and Arctic stratospheric balloon campaigns collected over 50 flights between 2013 and 2016. The data consists of 4-second accumulations of rate counter measurements from NaI scintillators, designed to study electron losses from Earth's radiation belts. This Level 2 product was created by NASA as part of the BARREL mission to augment the Van Allen Probes.

Use Cases

• Analyzing relativistic electron precipitation events based on rate counter diagnostics.
• Characterizing the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on balloon array measurements.
• Correlating balloon-based X-ray measurements with in-situ plasma wave and particle data from the Van Allen Probes.
• Studying ULF-timescale magnetic field variations using the DC magnetometer data mentioned in the mission description.

Strengths

• Data spans four distinct balloon campaigns from 2013 to 2016.
• Over 50 stratospheric balloon payloads were launched, providing multiple observation points.
• Mission was coordinated with the Van Allen Probes and other ground/space-based instruments like EISCAT radar.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from rate counters on small stratospheric balloons carrying X-ray spectrometers and DC magnetometers.

Time Range

2013 to 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 11:10:42.274458; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV base in Antarctica (2013-2014) and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden (2015-2016).