juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra

Cosmic Ray Database (CRDB)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete cosmic ray spectral database from CRDB (Cosmic Ray DataBase) -- the reference database for cosmic ray physics, maintained by D. Maurin et al. at LPSC Grenoble.

Cosmic rays are high-energy charged particles -- mostly protons and atomic nuclei, but also electrons and positrons -- that bombard the Earth from all directions. Their energies span an astonishing range, from sub-GeV particles modulated by the solar wind to ultra-high-energy events exceeding 10^20 eV, far beyond what any terrestrial accelerator can produce.

CRDB aggregates measurements from an extraordinary variety of instruments: magnetic spectrometers on the International Space Station (AMS-02), balloon-borne calorimeters (CREAM, TRACER), satellite experiments (PAMELA, CALET, DAMPE), ground-based air shower arrays (KASCADE, Tibet AS-gamma), and Cherenkov telescopes. The database also includes secondary-to-primary ratios like boron-to-carbon (B/C), which are critical probes of cosmic ray propagation models and the diffusion coefficient of the interstellar medium.

This dataset is essential for constraining cosmic ray propagation models (e.g., GALPROP, DRAGON, USINE), testing dark matter annihilation signatures in positron and antiproton spectra, calibrating hadronic interaction models used in air shower simulations, and studying solar modulation effects.

This dataset is suitable for tabular regression tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
experiment	string	Name of the cosmic ray experiment that produced the measurement (e.g. 'AMS-02', 'PAMELA', 'CREAM', 'CALET', 'DAMPE')	ACE	0.0%
experiment_type	str	Type of detection platform: 'ISS' (International Space Station), 'balloon', 'satellite', 'ground' (air shower array)	space	0.0%
sub_experiment	string	Sub-experiment, detector configuration, or analysis variant within the experiment; null if not applicable	ACE-CRIS (1997/08-1998/04)	0.0%
energy_relative_error	float64	Relative uncertainty on the energy measurement (fractional); reflects the energy resolution of the detector	0.0	0.0%
distance_au	float64	Heliocentric distance of the measurement in AU; 1.0 for Earth-based, other values for interplanetary missions (Voyager, Pioneer)	1.0	0.0%
observation_period	str	Time period of the observation as reported by the experiment; format varies by experiment	1997/08/01-000000:1998/04/19-000000	0.0%
ads_bibcode	string	NASA ADS bibcode for the publication reporting this measurement	2013ApJ...770..117L	0.0%
particle	string	Measured particle or nucleus species: 'H' (proton), 'He', 'C', 'O', 'Fe', 'e-' (electron), 'e+' (positron), 'p-bar' (antiproton), or secondary-to-primary ratios like 'B/C'	B	0.0%
energy_type	str	Energy variable used for the measurement: 'EKN' = kinetic energy per nucleon, 'EK' = total kinetic energy, 'R' = rigidity	EKN	0.0%
energy_gev_n	float64	Kinetic energy per nucleon at the bin center in GeV/n; cosmic ray spectrum spans ~0.01 GeV/n to 10^11 GeV/n	0.06	0.0%
energy_bin_lo_gev_n	float64	Lower edge of the kinetic energy bin in GeV/n	0.06	0.0%
energy_bin_hi_gev_n	float64	Upper edge of the kinetic energy bin in GeV/n	0.06	0.0%
flux	float64	Differential flux in m^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 (GeV/n)^-1, or dimensionless ratio for secondary-to-primary quantities; decreases roughly as E^-3 power law	1.094	0.0%
stat_error_lo	float64	Downward 1-sigma statistical uncertainty on the flux, in the same units as flux	0.04	0.0%
stat_error_hi	float64	Upward 1-sigma statistical uncertainty on the flux, in the same units as flux	0.04	0.0%
sys_error_lo	float64	Downward systematic uncertainty on the flux, in the same units as flux	0.0	0.0%
sys_error_hi	float64	Upward systematic uncertainty on the flux, in the same units as flux	0.0	0.0%
is_upper_limit	bool	True if the flux value represents an upper limit rather than a detection	False	0.0%
solar_modulation_mv	float64	Solar modulation potential in MV (force-field approximation); accounts for the Sun's magnetic field effect on low-energy cosmic rays; higher values mean stronger suppression	551.3	0.0%

Quick stats

• 315,409 cosmic ray flux measurements
• 466 particle species
• 130 experiments
• Energy range: 2.55e-04 to 3.20e+11 GeV/n

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Proton spectrum from AMS-02
ams02_p = df[(df["particle"] == "H") & (df["experiment"] == "AMS-02")]
print(f"{len(ams02_p):,} AMS-02 proton data points")

# All experiments for a given particle
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
protons = df[df["particle"] == "H"]
for exp, grp in protons.groupby("experiment"):
    plt.scatter(grp["energy_gev_n"], grp["flux"], s=1, label=exp, alpha=0.5)
plt.xscale("log"); plt.yscale("log")
plt.xlabel("Energy (GeV/n)"); plt.ylabel("Flux")
plt.title("Proton Cosmic Ray Spectrum")
plt.show()

Data source

https://lpsc.in2p3.fr/crdb/

Related datasets

• juliensimon/auger-cosmic-rays

If you find this dataset useful, please consider giving it a like on Hugging Face. It helps others discover it.

About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{crdb_cosmic_ray_spectra,
  title = {Cosmic Ray Database (CRDB)},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0