The KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre KCDC: Granting Open Access to Astroparticle Physics Research Data

TL;DR

The KASCADE Cosmic-ray Data Centre (KCDC) provides open access to extensive air shower data from the KASCADE-Grande experiment, supporting research, education, and public engagement in astroparticle physics.

Contribution

This work offers the first comprehensive public data portal for KASCADE-Grande cosmic ray data, including measured, reconstructed, and simulated data, along with educational resources.

Findings

Over 433 million air shower events available

Includes simulation data from three high-energy interaction models

Provides educational examples for learning about cosmic rays and Big Data

Abstract

The `KASCADE Cosmic ray Data Centre' is a web portal (\url{https://kcdc.ikp.kit.edu}), where the data of the astroparticle physics experiment KASCADE-Grande are made available for the interested public. The KASCADE experiment was a large-area detector for the measurement of high-energy cosmic rays via the detection of extensive air showers. The multi-detector installations KASCADE and its extension KASCADE-Grande stopped the active data acquisition in 2013 of all its components end of 2012 after more than 20 years of data taking. In several updates since our first release in 2013 with KCDC we provide the public measured and reconstructed parameters of more than 433 million air showers. In addition, KCDC provides meta data information and documentation to enable a user outside the community of experts to perform their own data analysis. Simulation data from three different high energy interaction models have been made available as well as a compilation of measured and published spectra from various experiments. In addition, detailed educational examples shall encourage high-school students and early stage researchers to learn about astroparticle physics, cosmic radiation as well as the handling of Big Data and about the sustainable and public provision of scientific data.