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
1989-10-31 19:37	19:45	19:47	10 min	M1.9	2E-5	—	—
1989-10-31 15:13	15:37	16:19	66 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1989-10-31 04:11	04:38	05:27	76 min	M1.4	1E-5	N26E55	5769
1989-10-29 20:29	20:50	22:07	98 min	M2.3	2E-5	N27E78	5769
1989-10-29 01:21	03:51	05:17	236 min	M4	4E-5	—	—
1989-10-28 10:20	10:25	11:52	92 min	M1.6	2E-5	—	—
1989-10-28 04:10	06:55	08:50	280 min	M2.1	2E-5	—	—
1989-10-27 18:01	18:01	18:13	12 min	X1	1E-4	S32W90	5747
1989-10-27 10:35	23:00	10:53	1458 min	M6.2	6E-5	S28W90	5747
1989-10-26 22:19	22:41	23:53	94 min	M4.1	4E-5	—	5748
1989-10-26 19:46	19:49	19:59	13 min	M8.1	8E-5	S30W79	5747
1989-10-25 15:37	15:41	17:06	89 min	M8.7	9E-5	S28W65	5747
1989-10-25 03:58	04:00	04:10	12 min	M1.1	1E-5	S27W73	5747
1989-10-24 16:36	17:31	01:24	528 min	X5.7	6E-4	S30W57	5747
1989-10-23 11:35	11:43	12:47	72 min	X1.5	2E-4	S27W42	5747
1989-10-23 05:38	05:49	05:59	21 min	M1.7	2E-5	S28W38	5747
1989-10-23 03:11	03:22	04:19	68 min	M1	1E-5	S26W39	5747
1989-10-22 16:08	16:57	20:08	240 min	X2.9	3E-4	S27W31	5747
1989-10-22 14:54	14:58	15:47	53 min	M1.3	1E-5	S28W28	5747
1989-10-22 10:15	10:21	11:30	75 min	M1.5	2E-5	S27W26	5747
1989-10-21 22:54	22:56	23:00	6 min	M3.1	3E-5	S28W22	5747
1989-10-21 05:40	05:43	05:49	9 min	M1.9	2E-5	S27W16	5747
1989-10-21 00:53	00:55	01:06	13 min	M2.4	2E-5	S28W09	5747
1989-10-20 20:30	20:34	21:03	33 min	M1.4	1E-5	S26W11	5747
1989-10-20 13:15	14:10	14:58	103 min	M1.6	2E-5	S26W03	5747
1989-10-20 02:39	02:40	02:55	16 min	M1.1	1E-5	S28E02	5747
1989-10-19 11:29	11:55	19:13	464 min	X13	1E-3	S27E10	5747
1989-10-19 07:45	08:14	08:34	49 min	M1.6	2E-5	S25E12	5747
1989-10-18 17:06	17:25	19:50	164 min	M7.4	7E-5	S25E15	5747
1989-10-18 03:36	03:42	04:10	34 min	M1.6	2E-5	S30E28	5747
1989-10-17 23:15	23:00	01:30	1575 min	M2.7	3E-5	S30E30	5747
1989-10-17 17:50	17:51	18:15	25 min	M1	1E-5	S29E33	5747
1989-10-15 13:20	13:34	14:13	53 min	M1.6	2E-5	S14E21	5740
1989-10-14 22:33	22:34	22:51	18 min	M1	1E-5	S30E68	5747
1989-10-14 21:39	21:43	21:55	16 min	M1.3	1E-5	S26E67	5747
1989-10-13 04:00	05:12	07:30	210 min	M4.1	4E-5	—	5744
1989-10-13 01:55	02:05	02:19	24 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1989-10-12 22:42	22:47	23:22	40 min	M1.1	1E-5	N17W36	5745
1989-10-02 07:41	07:55	08:39	58 min	M1.5	2E-5	S16E05	5712
1989-09-30 01:39	01:54	03:02	83 min	M2.9	3E-5	S18E35	5712
1989-09-29 09:47	10:33	13:35	228 min	X9.8	1E-3	—	5698
1989-09-28 12:47	12:49	13:14	27 min	M3.5	4E-5	S19E85	5712
1989-09-28 08:19	08:26	08:32	13 min	M2.9	3E-5	—	—
1989-09-27 22:55	23:00	23:00	5 min	M1.6	2E-5	S19E85	5712
1989-09-27 16:00	16:13	16:21	21 min	M1.6	2E-5	S20W75	5698
1989-09-25 22:44	22:45	23:06	22 min	M3.3	3E-5	S13E78	5708
1989-09-25 12:12	12:22	12:33	21 min	M1.2	1E-5	S30W48	5698
1989-09-24 19:23	19:29	20:15	52 min	M1.6	2E-5	S12E90	5708
1989-09-24 07:14	07:34	08:04	50 min	M1.4	1E-5	S29W28	5698
1989-09-21 17:06	17:33	18:02	56 min	M1.9	2E-5	S27E03	5698

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