CERN Open Data Portal
Verified working Jul 31, 2026
Open particle-physics datasets, software, and guides from CERN.
CERN Open Data Portal provides public access to high-energy physics datasets from CERN experiments, including ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, OPERA, TOTEM, and others. It pairs large research datasets with documentation, software environments, event displays, and educational materials so users can learn from or analyze real experimental data.
Why it stands out
- Covers more than five petabytes of public particle-physics data rather than only papers or summary tables.
- Combines raw/research datasets with the software environments and guides needed to work with them.
- Includes materials for both classroom use and serious physics analysis, which is uncommon for specialist data portals.
- Organized by major CERN experiments, making it easier to navigate discipline-specific data releases.
Good to know
- The data is highly specialized and usually requires particle-physics background to interpret correctly.
- Full research use can involve very large files, significant storage, and experiment-specific software setup.
- Some analysis workflows rely on virtual machines or dedicated environments rather than simple browser-based tools.
- Portal news indicates some material may be moved to cold storage, so not every dataset may be equally quick to retrieve.
Under the radar: Use the experiment focus links before searching broadly; they surface experiment-specific guides and tools that are easy to miss from a generic keyword search.
Photos
Particle-physics researchers, educators, and advanced students can find CERN experiment data with the supporting tools needed to use it responsibly. Run a classroom activity using simplified collision datasets and detector-event visualizations. Reproduce or extend analyses with experiment-specific guides and virtual machine environments. Search for datasets by experiment, collision type, energy level, or educational/research keywords. Follow release notes to track newly opened datasets and portal updates.
Searchable dataset catalog; experiment-focused browsing for ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, DELPHI, JADE, LHCb, OPERA, PHENIX, and TOTEM; documentation and glossary; CMS and OPERA event displays; basic histogramming tools; guides for education and research use; software environments and virtual machine support for analysis workflows.
Technical Notes
- Dataset records and associated open data files are available for structured access through the portal, which is built on CERN’s Invenio open-data infrastructure.
- Large datasets are downloadable from individual records; practical use may require substantial bandwidth and storage.
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