juliensimon/solar-proton-events

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Solar Proton Events"
language:
- en
description: >-
Solar proton events (SPEs) affecting the Earth environment from 1976 to present,
compiled by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Includes peak proton flux,
associated flare class, location, and CME data.
size_categories:
- n<1K
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- space
- solar
- protons
- radiation
- space-weather
- noaa
- open-data
- tabular-data
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/solar_proton_events.parquet
---

# Solar Proton Events

*Part of the [Space Weather Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/space-weather-datasets-69c24cae98f1666f2101ca70) collection on Hugging Face.*

Solar proton events (SPEs) affecting the Earth environment from **1976-04-30** to
**2026-01-18**. Currently **319** events where the >10 MeV proton flux exceeded
10 particle flux units (pfu) as measured by GOES spacecraft at geosynchronous orbit.

## Dataset description

Solar proton events occur when protons are accelerated to high energies by solar
flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). When these energetic particles reach Earth,
they can disrupt satellite electronics, increase radiation doses for astronauts and
high-altitude aviation, degrade HF radio communications, and affect GPS accuracy.

This dataset covers the complete NOAA record from 1976 onward, including:

- **Proton flux**: peak >10 MeV flux in particle flux units (pfu)
- **Associated flares**: X-ray class (X, M, C, B) and optical classification
- **Source location**: heliographic coordinates of the associated flare
- **Radio emissions**: Type II and Type IV radio burst associations
- **CME speed**: linear speed of associated coronal mass ejection (km/s)

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `start_datetime` | datetime | Event start time (UTC) |
| `peak_datetime` | datetime | Time of peak >10 MeV flux (UTC) |
| `peak_flux_pfu` | int | Peak proton flux >10 MeV (particle flux units) |
| `region_number` | string | NOAA active region number |
| `location` | string | Heliographic coordinates of associated flare |
| `flare_class` | string | X-ray flare class (e.g., X5, M7, C3) |
| `flare_optical` | string | Optical flare classification (e.g., 2B, 3B) |
| `type_ii_radio` | bool | Type II radio emission observed |
| `type_iv_radio` | bool | Type IV radio emission observed |
| `cme_speed_km_s` | int | CME linear speed (km/s), where available |

## Quick stats

- **319** events (1976-04-30 to 2026-01-18)
- Peak flux range: 10 to **43,500** pfu (median: 60 pfu)
- Associated flares by X-ray class:
- C-class: **25**
- M-class: **129**
- X-class: **126**

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

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

# Largest proton events
top = df.nlargest(10, "peak_flux_pfu")
print(top[["start_datetime", "peak_flux_pfu", "flare_class", "location"]])

# Events with X-class flares
x_class = df[df["flare_class"].str.startswith("X", na=False)]
print(f"X-class associated events: {len(x_class)}")
```

## Data source

[NOAA NCEI Solar Proton Events](https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/space-weather/interplanetary-data/solar-proton-events/)
compiled by the Space Weather Prediction Center.

## 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/solar-proton-events) 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{solar_proton_events,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Solar Proton Events},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/solar-proton-events},
note = {Based on NOAA NCEI Solar Proton Events data}
}
```

## License

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