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
1990-06-28 18:23	18:34	18:49	26 min	M2.1	2E-5	N18E86	6133
1990-06-28 12:11	12:17	12:24	13 min	M2.9	3E-5	N19E85	6133
1990-06-27 19:06	19:13	19:33	27 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	—
1990-06-27 00:11	00:18	00:30	19 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1990-06-26 17:34	17:37	18:04	30 min	M1.8	2E-5	S21E29	6122
1990-06-24 23:16	23:18	23:46	30 min	M1.1	1E-5	S23E50	6122
1990-06-15 06:23	06:44	07:18	55 min	M3.1	3E-5	S31E28	6106
1990-06-12 22:33	22:38	23:24	51 min	M1.1	1E-5	N10W44	6089
1990-06-12 02:55	03:29	05:35	160 min	M6.4	6E-5	N10W33	6089
1990-06-11 22:53	22:59	23:05	12 min	M1	1E-5	N24E24	6096
1990-06-11 16:50	16:53	17:18	28 min	M1.1	1E-5	S25E67	6100
1990-06-11 07:34	07:48	08:59	85 min	M4.5	4E-5	N10W22	6089
1990-06-10 19:39	20:10	21:20	101 min	M1.7	2E-5	N09W17	6089
1990-06-10 12:30	13:06	13:52	82 min	M3.3	3E-5	N08W13	6089
1990-06-10 04:56	05:27	08:25	209 min	M2.3	2E-5	N10W10	6089
1990-06-09 14:39	14:48	15:15	36 min	M2.5	2E-5	N08W01	6089
1990-06-09 12:13	12:23	13:53	100 min	M1.4	1E-5	S14E75	6100
1990-06-07 16:59	17:30	20:58	239 min	M4.5	4E-5	—	—
1990-06-06 18:24	18:39	18:54	30 min	M1.9	2E-5	S18W76	6093
1990-06-06 14:38	14:42	14:50	12 min	M1	1E-5	S18W72	6093
1990-05-28 13:04	13:08	13:36	32 min	M1.1	1E-5	N18E33	6077
1990-05-27 01:05	01:33	02:39	94 min	M1.3	1E-5	—	—
1990-05-26 18:45	18:58	19:33	48 min	X1.4	1E-4	—	—
1990-05-26 15:18	16:00	16:38	80 min	M2.4	2E-5	N17E58	6077
1990-05-24 18:46	18:49	19:45	59 min	X9.3	9E-4	N33W78	6063
1990-05-24 17:39	17:39	17:56	17 min	M1.3	1E-5	N32W75	6063
1990-05-24 03:59	04:02	04:35	36 min	M1.3	1E-5	S14W73	6064
1990-05-23 06:51	07:04	08:00	69 min	M2.7	3E-5	—	—
1990-05-23 05:18	06:17	07:22	124 min	M2	2E-5	S14W60	6064
1990-05-23 02:01	02:20	03:35	94 min	M8.7	9E-5	N33W55	6063
1990-05-21 22:07	22:55	00:19	132 min	M3.2	3E-5	S16W44	6064
1990-05-21 20:12	20:17	21:39	87 min	X5.5	6E-4	N35W36	6063
1990-05-21 03:05	03:09	03:35	30 min	M1	1E-5	S16W29	6064
1990-05-20 23:22	23:25	00:15	53 min	M4.8	5E-5	N33W30	6063
1990-05-20 21:32	21:55	22:51	79 min	M1.6	2E-5	N34W42	6063
1990-05-20 01:38	02:19	03:36	118 min	M1	1E-5	S16W17	6064
1990-05-19 10:53	11:01	12:16	83 min	M2	2E-5	S17W09	6064
1990-05-18 19:10	21:10	21:58	168 min	M1.7	2E-5	N32W13	6063
1990-05-17 07:59	08:22	09:23	84 min	M1	1E-5	N31W04	6062
1990-05-17 01:07	01:24	01:44	37 min	M1.1	1E-5	N31E20	6063
1990-05-15 22:43	23:02	23:41	58 min	M1.7	2E-5	N33E24	6063
1990-05-15 10:46	11:10	14:13	207 min	X1.7	2E-4	N42E38	6063
1990-05-14 22:29	22:32	23:30	61 min	M1.2	1E-5	S18E53	6064
1990-05-14 12:52	12:53	13:26	34 min	M1.2	1E-5	N30E43	6063
1990-05-13 10:50	10:54	12:05	75 min	M2.4	2E-5	S18E72	6064
1990-05-13 01:25	01:33	01:54	29 min	M1.7	2E-5	—	—
1990-05-12 09:32	09:37	10:11	39 min	X1.2	1E-4	N31E74	6063
1990-05-11 22:27	22:48	23:28	61 min	M1.8	2E-5	N19W31	6049
1990-05-11 18:58	19:00	19:27	29 min	X3.6	4E-4	N29E86	6063
1990-05-11 03:37	03:48	04:06	29 min	X2.4	2E-4	—	—

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