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
1990-03-19 03:39	04:08	05:20	101 min	X1.5	2E-4	N31W43	5969
1990-03-19 02:34	02:38	03:20	46 min	M1.3	1E-5	N31W42	5969
1990-03-18 10:15	10:30	11:20	65 min	M3.2	3E-5	S35E31	5974
1990-03-13 20:37	20:53	21:31	54 min	M1.1	1E-5	N32E28	5969
1990-03-03 19:17	19:25	19:25	8 min	M1.1	1E-5	S12W76	5945
1990-03-02 00:20	00:22	01:20	60 min	M1.2	1E-5	N30E24	5961
1990-03-01 04:33	04:37	04:52	19 min	M1.8	2E-5	N31E34	5961
1990-03-01 02:56	03:09	03:53	57 min	M1.7	2E-5	S19W45	5947
1990-03-01 02:39	02:40	03:30	51 min	M1.9	2E-5	N30E39	5961
1990-02-28 14:52	17:16	19:03	251 min	M1.2	1E-5	N27E41	5961
1990-02-28 13:30	14:49	15:14	104 min	M1	1E-5	N31E41	5961
1990-02-28 04:07	04:10	04:15	8 min	M2.7	3E-5	N34E50	5961
1990-02-27 22:28	22:29	23:26	58 min	M1.7	2E-5	N29E54	5961
1990-02-24 02:17	02:21	02:30	13 min	M1.1	1E-5	S09E49	5953
1990-02-23 15:14	15:37	16:07	53 min	M1.3	1E-5	S11E53	5953
1990-02-23 11:53	12:02	12:56	63 min	M2.9	3E-5	S19E28	5947
1990-02-22 13:40	13:50	15:08	88 min	M1.2	1E-5	S20E41	5947
1990-02-08 17:29	17:33	17:36	7 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1990-02-03 00:09	00:09	00:24	15 min	M6.9	7E-5	S13W81	5900
1990-01-29 19:46	20:06	22:29	163 min	M1.5	2E-5	S23W76	5892
1990-01-27 22:47	22:59	23:09	22 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1990-01-24 19:01	19:15	20:03	62 min	M1.7	2E-5	S28W04	5892
1990-01-23 04:03	04:04	04:35	32 min	M2.3	2E-5	S10E56	5900
1990-01-22 10:55	11:04	12:22	87 min	M1.5	2E-5	S26E19	5892
1990-01-22 04:36	04:55	05:41	65 min	M1.2	1E-5	S12E09	5890
1990-01-21 15:04	15:23	17:19	135 min	M1.6	2E-5	S28E39	5892
1990-01-21 03:29	03:44	04:38	69 min	M6.9	7E-5	S11E22	5890
1990-01-20 12:23	12:30	13:05	42 min	M5.6	6E-5	—	—
1990-01-20 11:10	11:54	13:54	164 min	M4.2	4E-5	S11E29	5890
1990-01-20 10:40	10:49	11:59	79 min	M1.7	2E-5	N22W33	5882
1990-01-19 14:28	15:00	15:16	48 min	M2	2E-5	S12E45	5890
1990-01-18 01:23	01:23	01:35	12 min	M1.7	2E-5	S14E67	5890
1990-01-16 06:47	07:24	08:24	97 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	—
1990-01-14 09:05	09:06	09:18	13 min	M2.8	3E-5	N22E46	5882
1990-01-12 20:16	20:18	21:00	44 min	M3.5	4E-5	N21E65	5882
1990-01-11 23:45	23:56	00:34	49 min	M1.1	1E-5	S25W50	5871
1990-01-10 19:17	19:20	20:00	43 min	M2	2E-5	S25W35	5871
1990-01-10 01:41	01:44	02:12	31 min	M2.2	2E-5	S26W24	5871
1990-01-09 19:40	19:41	20:04	24 min	M1.2	1E-5	S25W22	5871
1990-01-09 13:51	13:53	14:37	46 min	M2.5	2E-5	S25W19	5871
1990-01-08 10:55	13:15	15:01	246 min	M1.6	2E-5	S16E25	5874
1990-01-05 10:57	11:00	11:09	12 min	M2	2E-5	S26W89	5867
1990-01-03 05:20	05:25	05:34	14 min	M1.3	1E-5	N21W80	5854
1990-01-01 20:19	20:28	20:49	30 min	M2.1	2E-5	N20W54	5854
1989-12-31 08:32	08:45	09:17	45 min	X2.8	3E-4	S25W51	5852
1989-12-30 03:09	03:18	04:14	65 min	X1	1E-4	S19E09	5858
1989-12-30 00:42	01:06	02:05	83 min	M5.3	5E-5	S17E15	5858
1989-12-29 22:04	22:04	22:11	7 min	M2.2	2E-5	S27W34	5852
1989-12-29 19:04	19:30	20:06	62 min	M2.8	3E-5	S27W33	5852
1989-12-29 17:28	17:29	17:35	7 min	M9.7	1E-4	S19E21	5858

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