Science Highlights from the BARREL Antarctic Balloon Campaigns

Robyn M Millan, Dartmouth College, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hanover, NH, United States, John Glen Sample, Montana State University, Bozeman, United States, Michael McCarthy, University of Washington, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Seattle, United States, David Miles Smith, University of California, Department of Physics and Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Santa Cruz, United States and BARREL Team

Contact First Author: Robyn M Millan; Robyn.Millan@dartmouth.edu

Previously Published Material: A similar poster was presented at the Fall 2014 AGU meeting.

Abstract ID#: 35853

 

English Abstract:
The Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) is an Antarctic balloon investigation designed to study electron loss from Earth's radiation belts. Two BARREL balloon campaigns were carried out from Antarctic Research Stations SANAE IV and Halley VI in January-February 2013 and 2014. During each campaign, 20 small (~20 kg) balloon payloads were launched to an altitude of 38 km to maintain an array of payloads distributed in L-value and magnetic local time. Each balloon carried a NaI scintillator to measure the bremsstrahlung X-rays produced by precipitating relativistic electrons as they collide with neutrals in Earth’s atmosphere, and a DC magnetometer to explore the nature of Ultra Low Frequency temporal modulations of precipitation. We present several science highlights from BARREL. Precipitation was observed over a range of energies with temporal and spatial structure at a variety of scales. The combination of BARREL with in situ (e.g. Van Allen Probes, THEMIS) and ground-based (e.g. riometer, VLF) measurements provides a unique opportunity to study wave-particle interactions, and to quantify the spatial scale of energetic precipitation.
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