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[[File:NASA’s BARREL Mission Launches 20 Balloons.jpg|300px|thumb|A crane lowers two BARREL balloon payloads onto the platform at [[Halley Research Station]] in Antarctica]]
[[File:NASA’s BARREL Mission Halley Station.jpg|thumb|A balloon begins to rise over the brand new Halley VI Research Station, which had its grand opening in February 2013]]
'''Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses''' ('''BARREL''', sometimes called '''Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses''') was a [[NASA]] mission operated out of [[Dartmouth College]] that worked with the [[Van Allen Probes]] mission (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, mission).<ref>{{cite news |title=Van Allen Probes: NASA Renames Radiation Belt Mission to Honor Pioneering Scientist |date=11 November 2012 |publisher=[[Science Daily]] |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121111101748.htm |agency=[[Reuters]] |accessdate=12 November 2012}}</ref> The BARREL project launched a series of [[high-altitude balloon]]s during four science campaigns: January–February 2013 in Antarctica, December 2013–February 2014 in Antarctica, August 2015 in Sweden, and August 2016 in Sweden. Unlike the football-field-sized balloons typically launched at the Poles, these were each just {{convert|90|ft|m|order=flip|sp=us}} in diameter.<ref name=launchingballoons />
The last balloon was launched August 30, 2016. During the BARREL program, a total of 45 balloon payloads were built, and eight test flights and 55 science flights were carried out.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-funded-scientific-ballooners-wrap-up-fourth-and-final-campaign|title = Scientific Ballooners Wrap up 4th, Final Campaign|date = 16 September 2016}}</ref>
==Scientific Objectives==
BARREL helped study the [[Van Allen radiation belt]]s and why they wax and wane over time. Each BARREL balloon carried instruments to measure particles ejected from the belts which make it down to Earth's atmosphere.<ref name=launchingballoons>{{cite web |title=Launching Balloons in Antarctica |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/barrel-antarctica.html |publisher=[[NASA]] |author=Karen C. Fox|date=2015-05-26 }}</ref>  By comparing such data to that of the Van Allen Probes, which orbit with the belts themselves, the two missions attempted to correlate observations in the radiation belts with the number of particles ejected.<ref name=LWS /> This was done to help distinguish between various theories as to what causes electron loss in the belts.<ref name=dartmouth>{{cite web |title=Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmillan/barrel.html |publisher=Dartmouth Balloon Program |access-date=2011-03-11 |archive-date=2019-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211062123/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmillan/barrel.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Organization==
The [[principal investigator]] was [[Robyn Millan]] at Dartmouth College. Co-investigator institutions were the [[University of Washington]], [[University of California, Berkeley|U. C. Berkeley]], and [[University of California, Santa Cruz|U. C. Santa Cruz]]. BARREL was part of NASA's [[Living With a Star]] program.<ref name=LWS>{{cite web |title=Living With A Star Program: Missions |url=http://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions.html |publisher=NASA}}</ref> Support for the Antarctica balloon campaigns was provided by the [[National Science Foundation]], [[British Antarctic Survey]], and the [[South African National Antarctic Programme]].
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
{{commons category|BARREL}}
* [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~barrel/ BARREL program] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021113754/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~barrel/ |date=2019-10-21 }} at Dartmouth College
* [https://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/rbsp/barrel BARREL program] at NASA.gov
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