BARREL Balloon Ephemeris with Magnetic Coordinates

January-February 2013 and 2014 data from the BARREL (Balloon Array for Radiation Belt Relativistic Electron Losses) mission. NASA's mission used stratospheric balloons in Antarctica to measure electron precipitation from Earth's radiation belts, providing geographic and derived magnetic coordinates every 4 seconds. This dataset was processed from original vector data into raster files for the BOREAS study area.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the spatial and temporal scale of relativistic electron precipitation using latitude, longitude, and epoch time.
• Correlating balloon-measured X-ray bremsstrahlung with in-situ satellite data from the Van Allen Probes.
• Studying Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) magnetic field variations using DC magnetometer data.
• Modeling magnetic field lines and coordinates using the IRBEM library-derived magnetic parameters.

Strengths

• Provides high-temporal-resolution (4-second) geographic positioning from onboard GPS.
• Represents the first balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation coincident with in-situ satellite data.
• Covers two Austral summer campaigns (2013, 2014) from two Antarctic research stations.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: one source lists a last update of 2026-03 13, while another indicates data from 1993-12-31.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and the complete column schema are not provided across platforms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Geographic coordinates from onboard GPS; magnetic coordinates derived using the IRBEM FORTRAN library. Original vector data processed into raster files.

Time Range

2013-01 to 2014-02

Freshness

2026-03-13 12:43:04.080037

Geography

Antarctic stratosphere (~30 km altitude), near the Antarctic circle, with launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV bases.