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

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Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1989-12-29 15:10	15:11	15:49	39 min	M2.8	3E-5	S19E18	5858
1989-12-29 09:59	10:05	10:44	45 min	M8.1	8E-5	—	—
1989-12-28 20:08	20:15	20:37	29 min	M4.1	4E-5	S18E30	5858
1989-12-28 08:57	09:07	09:23	26 min	M1.6	2E-5	S08E15	5853
1989-12-28 06:49	06:55	07:18	29 min	M1.3	1E-5	—	—
1989-12-28 02:38	02:49	04:30	112 min	M9.7	1E-4	S25W07	5852
1989-12-27 20:46	20:55	22:09	83 min	M1.1	1E-5	N25E17	5854
1989-12-27 11:37	12:19	15:03	206 min	M3.1	3E-5	S26W01	5852
1989-12-27 00:34	00:37	01:08	34 min	M1.3	1E-5	S26E07	5852
1989-12-26 17:10	17:11	18:14	64 min	M6.9	7E-5	S26E09	5852
1989-12-26 06:42	07:14	11:46	304 min	M2	2E-5	N25E37	5854
1989-12-26 04:24	04:39	05:19	55 min	M5.9	6E-5	S27E14	5852
1989-12-25 19:11	19:24	19:55	44 min	M3.1	3E-5	S25E22	5852
1989-12-25 15:08	15:40	16:31	83 min	M1.2	1E-5	S26E24	5852
1989-12-24 23:10	23:15	23:59	49 min	M2	2E-5	S11E52	5853
1989-12-24 12:21	12:36	13:40	79 min	M1.3	1E-5	S30W41	5850
1989-12-23 01:16	01:19	01:41	25 min	M1.2	1E-5	—	—
1989-12-23 00:37	00:44	01:16	39 min	M1.7	2E-5	—	—
1989-12-23 00:18	00:25	00:35	17 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1989-12-22 22:14	22:14	22:20	6 min	M5.2	5E-5	N21E71	5854
1989-12-20 18:03	18:06	19:08	65 min	M2.3	2E-5	N21E19	5846
1989-12-18 22:36	22:40	23:14	38 min	M3.2	3E-5	N20E22	5837
1989-12-18 07:31	07:49	08:29	58 min	M2	2E-5	N19E50	5846
1989-12-14 01:07	01:12	01:47	40 min	M1.9	2E-5	N09E72	5836
1989-12-09 07:22	07:40	08:20	58 min	M1.2	1E-5	N21W12	5821
1989-12-07 19:56	20:03	21:00	64 min	M4.5	4E-5	S21W81	5822
1989-12-07 14:56	14:58	15:11	15 min	M1.4	1E-5	N20W76	5810
1989-12-07 07:28	07:34	07:50	22 min	M1.7	2E-5	—	—
1989-12-05 14:31	14:33	15:00	29 min	M5.6	6E-5	N16W76	5806
1989-12-04 18:36	18:53	19:30	54 min	M1.2	1E-5	N15W62	5806
1989-12-04 13:37	13:53	17:48	251 min	M2.9	3E-5	—	—
1989-12-04 02:22	02:27	02:56	34 min	M1.1	1E-5	N15W58	5806
1989-12-02 20:54	21:47	22:30	96 min	M3	3E-5	N15W43	5806
1989-11-30 21:56	22:06	22:35	39 min	M2	2E-5	—	—
1989-11-30 10:45	11:25	14:04	199 min	X2.6	3E-4	N24W52	5800
1989-11-27 16:03	16:10	17:00	57 min	M1.1	1E-5	N20W64	5799
1989-11-26 16:56	18:31	21:40	284 min	M4	4E-5	N25W03	5800
1989-11-25 21:55	22:24	01:35	220 min	X1	1E-4	N30E05	5800
1989-11-25 01:38	01:46	01:54	16 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1989-11-22 12:20	12:35	12:49	29 min	M3.8	4E-5	S23W67	5793
1989-11-22 07:34	07:37	08:12	38 min	M2	2E-5	S23W67	5793
1989-11-21 12:32	12:46	13:31	59 min	X4	4E-4	S26W53	5793
1989-11-21 08:08	08:12	08:36	28 min	M1.5	2E-5	S27W51	5793
1989-11-20 20:25	20:28	21:01	36 min	X1	1E-4	S27W43	5793
1989-11-20 13:17	13:25	13:57	40 min	M3.9	4E-5	S28W43	5793
1989-11-20 02:50	03:13	03:38	48 min	M1.3	1E-5	S25W38	5793
1989-11-19 23:35	23:38	00:01	26 min	M2.1	2E-5	S25W34	5793
1989-11-19 15:06	15:10	15:59	53 min	M1.2	1E-5	S25W29	5793
1989-11-19 10:23	10:32	10:54	31 min	M1.2	1E-5	S24W27	5793
1989-11-19 05:19	05:22	05:42	23 min	X1.1	1E-4	S24W25	5793

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