juliensimon/fermi-gbm-triggers

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Fermi GBM All-Trigger Catalog"
language:
- en
description: "All triggers from the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor — GRBs, solar flares, SGRs, terrestrial particles, and more. Updated daily from NASA HEASARC."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- space
- gamma-ray
- fermi
- nasa
- grb
- triggers
- astronomy
- physics
- open-data
- tabular-data
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/fermi_gbm_triggers.parquet
default: true
---

# Fermi GBM All-Trigger Catalog

*Part of the [Astronomy Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/astronomy-datasets-69c24caf2f17e36128946743) collection on Hugging Face.*


Complete catalog of **all** triggers from the
[Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM)](https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/gbm/),
sourced from NASA HEASARC. Currently **12,064** triggers (4,245 GRBs,
7,819 non-GRB triggers).

## Dataset description

The Fermi GBM detects transient events across the full unocculted sky in the 8 keV to
40 MeV energy range. While the confirmed GRB catalog (`fermigbrst`) contains only
verified gamma-ray bursts, this **all-trigger catalog** (`fermigtrig`) includes every
trigger the instrument recorded: GRBs, solar flares, soft gamma repeaters (SGRs),
terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, particle events, and unclassified triggers.

This broader view is valuable for studying the full population of high-energy transients,
training trigger classifiers, and analyzing detection statistics.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `__row` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `version` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `trigger_name` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `name` | string | Trigger name / identifier |
| `ra` | float | Right ascension (degrees) |
| `dec` | float | Declination (degrees) |
| `galactic_lon` | float | Galactic longitude (degrees) |
| `galactic_lat` | float | Galactic latitude (degrees) |
| `error_radius` | float | Localization error radius (degrees) |
| `time` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `end_time` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `trigger_time` | datetime | Trigger time (UTC, converted from MJD) |
| `trigger_type` | string | Trigger classification type |
| `reliability` | float | Trigger reliability flag |
| `trigger_timescale` | float | Trigger timescale (ms) |
| `trigger_algorithm` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `channel_low` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `channel_high` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `adc_low` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `adc_high` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `detector_mask` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `geo_long` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `geo_lat` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `ra_scx` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `dec_scx` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `ra_scz` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `dec_scz` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `theta` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `phi` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `localization_source` | string | Source of localization (e.g. ground, flight) |
| `__x_ra_dec` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `__y_ra_dec` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `__z_ra_dec` | mixed | HEASARC column |
| `is_grb` | bool | True if trigger is classified as a GRB |

## Quick stats

- **12,064** triggers (2008-07-14 to 2026-03-27)
- **4,245** classified as GRBs
- **7,819** non-GRB triggers (solar flares, SGRs, particles, etc.)

### Trigger type breakdown
- **4,245** GRB
- **2,679** SFLARE
- **1,717** LOCLPAR
- **1,611** TGF
- **785** UNCERT
- **680** SGR
- **214** TRANSNT
- **127** DISTPAR

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/fermi-gbm-triggers", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Filter to confirmed GRBs
grbs = df[df["is_grb"] == True]
print(f"{len(grbs):,} GRBs out of {len(df):,} total triggers")

# Non-GRB triggers
non_grb = df[df["is_grb"] == False]
print(non_grb["trigger_type"].value_counts())

# Triggers per year
df["year"] = df["trigger_time"].dt.year
df.groupby("year").size().plot(kind="bar", title="Fermi GBM Triggers per Year")

# Sky map of triggers
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.scatter(df["ra"], df["dec"], s=1, alpha=0.3)
plt.xlabel("RA (deg)")
plt.ylabel("Dec (deg)")
plt.title("Fermi GBM Trigger Sky Distribution")
```

## Data source

All data comes from the [Fermi GBM Trigger Catalog](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/fermi/fermigtrig.html)
hosted by NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC),
accessed via the TAP protocol.

## Update schedule

Daily at 20:00 UTC via [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets).

## Related datasets

- [gamma-ray-bursts](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gamma-ray-bursts) — Fermi GBM confirmed GRB Catalog
- [fermi-4fgl](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/fermi-4fgl) — Fermi LAT 4FGL Source Catalog
- [solar-flare-events](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/solar-flare-events) — GOES X-ray flare detections

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/fermi-gbm-triggers) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{fermi_gbm_triggers,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Fermi GBM All-Trigger Catalog},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/fermi-gbm-triggers},
note = {Based on NASA HEASARC Fermi GBM Trigger Catalog data}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)