BARREL

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).

Unlike the football-field-sized balloons typically launched at the Poles, these were each just 27 meters (90 ft) in diameter.

[3] BARREL helped study the Van Allen radiation belts 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.

Co-investigator institutions were the University of Washington, U. C. Berkeley, and U. C. Santa Cruz.

A crane lowers two BARREL balloon payloads onto the platform at Halley Research Station in Antarctica
A balloon begins to rise over the brand new Halley VI Research Station, which had its grand opening in February 2013