File:Ballooning in the constant sun of the South Pole summer (13991854852).jpg

Original file (5,472 × 3,648 pixels, file size: 5.21 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Description

The BARREL team at Halley Research Station in Antarctica, work to inflate a balloon. The long tube on the left is the inflation tube used to fill the top of the balloon with helium.

Credit: NASA/Goddard/BARREL

--

Three months, 20 balloons, and one very successful campaign. The team for NASA's BARREL – short for Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses -- mission returned from Antarctica in March 2014. BARREL's job is to help unravel the mysterious Van Allen belts, two gigantic donuts of radiation that surround Earth, which can shrink and swell in response to incoming energy and particles from the sun and sometimes expose satellites to harsh radiation. While in Antarctica, the team launched 20 balloons carrying instruments that sense charged particles that are scattered into the atmosphere from the belts, spiraling down the magnetic fields near the South Pole. Each balloon traveled around the pole for up to three weeks. The team will coordinate the BARREL data with observations from NASA's two Van Allen Probes to better understand how occurrences in the belts relate to bursts of particles funneling down toward Earth. BARREL team members will be on hand at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in DC on April 26 and 27, 2014 for the exhibit Space Balloons: Exploring the Extremes of Space Weather.

NASA image use policy

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Date
Source Flickr: Ballooning in the constant sun of the South Pole summer
Author NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Permission
(Reusing this file)
This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 26 April 2014, 21:20 by 4ing. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated.
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

6 January 2014

image/jpeg

8c5706e589d0691328e02bd621b846a4f9caf3ef

5,466,658 byte

3,648 pixel

5,472 pixel

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current21:20, 26 April 2014Thumbnail for version as of 21:20, 26 April 20145,472 × 3,648 (5.21 MB)Flickr upload botUploaded from http://flickr.com/photo/24662369@N07/13991854852 using Flickr upload bot

The following page uses this file:

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata