juliensimon/solar-radio-bursts

Solar Radio Burst Events

Credit: NASA

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Catalog of solar radio burst events (spectral sweeps, fixed-frequency bursts, noise storms) from NOAA SWPC. Updated daily with incremental merge.

Solar radio bursts are produced by energetic electrons accelerated during solar flares and coronal mass ejections. They are important indicators of space weather activity:

• Spectral sweeps (RSP) — frequency-drifting bursts including Type II (CME shocks), III (electron beams), IV (post-flare continuum), V (short continuum)
• Fixed-frequency bursts (RBR) — discrete bursts at a single frequency
• Noise storms (RNS) — sustained broadband emission from active regions

The physics behind these emissions is coherent plasma radiation. When energetic electrons stream through the solar corona, they excite Langmuir waves at the local plasma frequency, which then convert into electromagnetic radiation at the fundamental and second harmonic. Because the plasma frequency depends on electron density — which decreases with altitude in the corona — Type III bursts exhibit a characteristic fast frequency drift as the electron beam propagates outward along open magnetic field lines.

Solar radio bursts are among the earliest detectable signatures of eruptive solar activity, often preceding the arrival of energetic particles and geomagnetic disturbances at Earth by minutes to days. Monitoring them is therefore critical for operational space weather forecasting.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
start_date	datetime64[us]	UTC time when the radio burst began	2026-03-01 23:12:06	0.0%
end_date	datetime64[us]	UTC time when the radio burst ended; null if event was still in progress at report time	2026-03-01 23:15:30	0.0%
max_date	datetime64[us]	UTC time of maximum radio flux intensity; null for noise storms where peak is ill-defined	2026-03-01 23:13:24	48.7%
type	string	SWPC event type mapped to descriptive label: 'spectral_sweep' (RSP — frequency-drifting burst including Type II/III/IV/V), 'fixed_freq_burst' (RBR — discrete burst at a single frequency), 'noise_storm' (RNS — sustained broadband emission from active regions)	spectral_sweep	0.0%
frequency	string	Observing frequency or frequency range in MHz (e.g., '245' or '025-180'); Type III bursts can drift from >100 MHz to <10 MHz in seconds as electron beams propagate outward	025-180	0.0%
observatory	string	SWPC station code reporting the event (e.g., 'SGD', 'LEA', 'BOU'); multiple observatories may report the same event independently	LEA	0.0%
quality	string	SWPC data quality flag indicating analyst confidence in the event classification (e.g., 'Good', 'Poor'); null if not assigned	C	0.0%
burst_class	string	Roman numeral subtype for spectral sweep events (e.g., 'III/2', 'II', 'IV'); Roman numeral indicates burst type (I=noise storm enhancement, II=slow-drift shock, III=fast electron beam, IV=continuum, V=post-III continuum); null for fixed-frequency bursts and noise storms	III/2	51.3%
region	float64	NOAA active region number causally associated with the burst; null if no active region link was established	4384.0	89.8%

Quick stats

• 626 radio burst events (2026-03-01 to 2026-04-20)
• 3 event type classifications
• Top types: fixed_freq_burst (308), spectral_sweep (305), noise_storm (13)

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/solar-radio-bursts", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/solar-radio-bursts", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Spectral sweep events (includes Type II, III, IV, V)
sweeps = df[df["type"] == "spectral_sweep"]
print(f"{len(sweeps):,} spectral sweep events")

# Type III bursts specifically
type_iii = sweeps[sweeps["burst_class"].str.contains("III", na=False)]

# Event type distribution over time
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df["month"] = df["start_date"].dt.to_period("M")
monthly = df.groupby(["month", "type"]).size().unstack(fill_value=0)
monthly.plot.bar(stacked=True, figsize=(12, 4))
plt.title("Solar Radio Burst Events by Type")
plt.ylabel("Count")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Data source

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

Update schedule

Daily at 19:00 UTC

Related datasets

• juliensimon/solar-flare-events

• juliensimon/donki-space-weather-events

• juliensimon/space-weather-indices

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{solar_radio_bursts,
  title = {Solar Radio Burst Events},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/solar-radio-bursts},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0