juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra

Cosmic Ray Database (CRDB)

Part of the Physics Datasets collection on Hugging Face.

Complete cosmic ray spectral database from CRDB — 6,837 measurements across 32 particle types from 65 experiments.

Dataset description

The Cosmic Ray Database (CRDB) compiles all published cosmic ray measurements, including energy spectra and flux data from ground-based detectors, balloon experiments, and space missions. It is 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. The cosmic ray energy spectrum follows a remarkably smooth power law over more than ten orders of magnitude, punctuated by subtle features like the "knee" at ~3x10^15 eV and the "ankle" at ~5x10^18 eV that signal transitions between different source populations and acceleration mechanisms. Understanding cosmic ray origins, acceleration, and propagation through the Galaxy is one of the central problems in astroparticle physics.

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. Each experiment covers a different energy range and particle species, and CRDB's uniform formatting makes it possible to compare results across decades of measurements and very different detection techniques. 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. It serves as the primary benchmarking resource for any theoretical or computational work in cosmic ray physics.

Schema

Column	Type	Description
particle	string	Particle/nucleus type (e.g. "H", "He", "e-")
experiment	string	Experiment name (e.g. "AMS-02", "PAMELA")
sub_exp	string	Sub-experiment or detector
energy_min_gev_n	float	Energy bin lower edge (GeV/n)
energy_max_gev_n	float	Energy bin upper edge (GeV/n)
flux	float	Measured flux
error_low	float	Lower error on flux
error_high	float	Upper error on flux
reference	string	Publication reference
ads_url	string	ADS bibliographic URL
is_usable	bool	Whether the data point is recommended for use

Quick stats

• 6,837 measurements
• 32 particle types
• 65 experiments

Usage

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"):
    e_mid = (grp["energy_min_gev_n"] + grp["energy_max_gev_n"]) / 2
    plt.scatter(e_mid, 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")

Data source

CRDB — Cosmic Ray DataBase (Maurin et al.)

All data retrieved via the crdb Python package.

Update schedule

Quarterly (1st of Jan/Apr/Jul/Oct at 06:00 UTC) via GitHub Actions.

Related datasets

• juliensimon/auger-cosmic-rays — Pierre Auger Observatory events

Pipeline

Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets

Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the dataset page and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the space-datasets repo.

Citation

@dataset{crdb_cosmic_ray_spectra,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {Cosmic Ray Database (CRDB)},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/crdb-cosmic-ray-spectra},
  note = {Based on CRDB (Maurin et al.) via lpsc.in2p3.fr/crdb}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0