Sun · flares

A Sun that bursts

Flares are sudden releases of magnetic energy above active regions. The flashes in this view recall the classes of the strongest flares in the GOES catalogue (X, M); their positions are illustrative.

Latest catalogued flare

C1.5

2026-10-26 04:36 UTC

Strongest in the catalogue

X28

2003-11-04

X-class flares

558

1975 → 2026

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26

Illustrative rendering: procedural prominence loops and flashes; classes from the GOES catalogue below.

Catalogued flares

94,047

1975 → 2026-10-26

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26 Current · provisional

X-class flares

558

7954 M-class

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26 Current · provisional

Latest catalogued flare

C1.5

2026-10-26 04:36 UTC · AR 14561

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26

Strongest in the catalogue

X28

2003-11-04 18:29 UTC · S19W83

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26

X- and M-class flares per year GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26 Current · provisional

Show the data as a table

Number of flares per calendar year in the GOES catalogue (NOAA). The current year is provisional; 2020 is marked “instrument change”: since December 2019 the flux is no longer reduced by the 0.7 factor, which raises classes by about 40%.

C-class flares per year GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26 Current · provisional

Show the data as a table

Detection of C-class flares depends on the background level, hence on the cycle phase and the instrument; these counts are less homogeneous than those of M and X classes.

Ten strongest flares (peak flux derived from the class)

#	Class	Start (UTC)	Peak	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1	X28	2003-11-04 18:29	18:50	3E-3	S19W83	10486
2	X20	1989-08-15 23:08	23:17	2E-3	S18W84	5629
3	X20	2001-04-02 19:32	19:51	2E-3	—	—
4	X17	2003-10-28 08:51	10:10	2E-3	—	10486
5	X17	2005-09-07 15:17	15:40	2E-3	S11E77	10808
6	X15	1989-03-06 12:54	13:10	2E-3	N35E69	5395
7	X14	2001-04-15 11:19	11:50	1E-3	S20W85	9415
8	X13	1984-04-24 21:56	22:01	1E-3	S12E43	4474
9	X13	1989-10-19 11:29	11:55	1E-3	S27E10	5747
10	X12	1982-06-06 14:30	14:54	1E-3	S09E25	3763

The peak flux (0.1–0.8 nm, W/m²) is derived from the published class, e.g. X28 = 28 × 10⁻⁴ W/m²; the GOES detectors saturated above X17 before 2003, so the 4 November 2003 flare is an estimate.

Filterable catalogue GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/26/26

Year

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Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1990-09-17 03:50	03:53	04:01	11 min	M1	1E-5	S15E41	6272
1990-09-14 18:05	18:10	19:38	93 min	M1.6	2E-5	N19E25	6263
1990-09-14 11:32	11:33	11:37	5 min	M3.5	4E-5	S20E90	—
1990-09-14 02:10	02:12	03:01	51 min	M1.3	1E-5	S29E43	6266
1990-09-11 22:57	23:13	00:33	96 min	M1.5	2E-5	N06W45	6247
1990-09-06 19:08	19:51	20:50	102 min	M1.9	2E-5	—	—
1990-09-05 02:26	02:40	03:31	65 min	M2.7	3E-5	N14W87	6233
1990-09-04 12:37	12:49	13:28	51 min	M1.4	1E-5	N14W73	6233
1990-09-03 07:43	07:47	08:33	50 min	M2.2	2E-5	N12W57	6233
1990-09-01 04:58	05:06	05:31	33 min	M2.7	3E-5	N14W31	6233
1990-08-31 02:08	02:15	02:25	17 min	M1	1E-5	S25W87	6226
1990-08-30 11:08	11:16	12:49	101 min	M2.5	2E-5	N13W08	6233
1990-08-30 02:20	22:00	03:10	1490 min	M1	1E-5	N14W05	6233
1990-08-29 23:57	23:58	00:11	14 min	M1.2	1E-5	N14W12	6233
1990-08-29 18:37	18:40	20:46	129 min	M1.6	2E-5	N13W03	6233
1990-08-29 06:07	06:13	06:43	36 min	M1.3	1E-5	N13E03	6233
1990-08-29 02:32	22:00	02:49	1457 min	M1.5	2E-5	S22W42	6226
1990-08-28 18:52	20:33	21:39	167 min	M1.8	2E-5	N13E13	6233
1990-08-28 16:20	16:29	17:25	65 min	M1.8	2E-5	N14E13	6233
1990-08-28 10:41	10:49	12:19	98 min	M4.9	5E-5	N13E17	6233
1990-08-28 08:13	08:15	08:59	46 min	M1.3	1E-5	N15E17	6233
1990-08-28 06:49	07:10	07:53	64 min	M4.5	4E-5	N15E15	6233
1990-08-27 18:37	19:05	19:56	79 min	X3	3E-4	N14E26	6233
1990-08-27 17:05	17:14	18:26	81 min	M2.1	2E-5	N14E26	6233
1990-08-27 01:50	01:56	02:12	22 min	M1.8	2E-5	S19W32	6226
1990-08-26 14:05	14:20	17:18	193 min	M5.2	5E-5	S24W07	6227
1990-08-26 11:47	11:52	12:45	58 min	M1	1E-5	N13E37	6233
1990-08-24 21:51	22:01	22:14	23 min	M1.5	2E-5	S27E19	6230
1990-08-24 06:30	07:20	10:20	230 min	M1.6	2E-5	S11E03	6223
1990-08-21 15:34	17:13	20:15	281 min	M1.1	1E-5	S19E34	6226
1990-08-17 21:31	21:31	21:39	8 min	M1.1	1E-5	N06W15	6216
1990-08-13 11:13	11:21	13:35	142 min	M1.4	1E-5	N17E10	6197
1990-08-13 07:21	07:29	07:59	38 min	M1	1E-5	N14E17	6199
1990-08-10 16:09	16:14	17:12	63 min	M7.9	8E-5	N20E72	6203
1990-08-08 11:34	11:58	12:40	66 min	M1.9	2E-5	N15E71	6197
1990-08-01 17:36	18:02	19:09	93 min	M1.6	2E-5	S25W42	6172
1990-07-30 04:33	05:32	06:47	134 min	M4.4	4E-5	N20E45	6180
1990-07-26 14:59	15:03	15:19	20 min	M3.3	3E-5	N13W17	6162
1990-07-25 20:23	21:24	23:29	186 min	M2.3	2E-5	S15E55	6174
1990-07-18 04:26	04:30	04:35	9 min	M1	1E-5	S27E63	6161
1990-07-13 07:59	09:30	10:42	163 min	M3.1	3E-5	—	—
1990-07-12 11:41	11:48	12:07	26 min	M1.2	1E-5	S10W11	6151
1990-07-08 20:18	21:34	22:11	113 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1990-07-07 22:36	22:48	23:08	32 min	M1.1	1E-5	S21W70	6131
1990-07-06 03:32	03:52	04:42	70 min	M2.2	2E-5	N17W15	—
1990-07-05 01:46	01:48	02:48	62 min	M1.3	1E-5	N17E03	6133
1990-07-04 15:31	15:39	16:21	50 min	M4.8	5E-5	S22W22	6131
1990-07-04 14:40	14:48	15:44	64 min	M7.6	8E-5	N21E29	6138
1990-06-30 23:41	23:43	00:09	28 min	M1	1E-5	S22E27	6131
1990-06-29 20:29	20:35	21:23	54 min	M3.8	4E-5	N16E68	6133

Method and sources

The catalogue reproduces the NOAA (SWPC/NGDC) GOES event lists compiled yearly by the NASA GSFC Hesperia centre: start, peak and end (UT), class, heliographic position and active region when known. The class encodes the peak flux in the 0.1–0.8 nm band: C = 10⁻⁶ W/m², M = 10⁻⁵, X = 10⁻⁴, times the number (M2.3 = 2.3 × 10⁻⁵ W/m²).

Lines without an X-ray class (optical or sub-threshold events) are not imported. The last two years are re-read on each import; duplicates are rejected by start time and class. Yearly counts are computed from the imported catalogue.

Reading these data

Until December 2019 NOAA applied a 0.7 factor to the XRS-B flux of GOES 8 to 15; since GOES-16 became the primary satellite the raw flux is used. For the same physical flux, a class after 2020 is therefore about 1.4 times higher (Janssens et al., 2025). Counts before and after 2020 are not directly comparable.

SOURCES OF THIS PAGE

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC): NOAA SWPC/NGDC GOES X-ray flare event lists (1975–), yearly compilations by K. Tolbert, NASA GSFC Hesperia. Flare classes as reported by NOAA at the time: until December 2019 the XRS-B flux carried a 0.7 scaling factor (Janssens et al., 2025). · source page ↗
Licence : U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · retrieved on Oct 26, 2026 · SHA-256 d24560b7385e…
Janssens (2025): Janssens, J., et al. (2025). Solar flare rates and probabilities based on the McIntosh classification: impacts of GOES/XRS rescaling and recalibration. Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate. · doi:10.1051/swsc/2025007
Licence : Published literature; cited

Solar flares GOES X-ray flare catalogue since 1975

A Sun that bursts