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

Minimum class

Sort

Export CSV

Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1989-06-16 19:48	19:51	20:52	64 min	M2.5	2E-5	S21W07	5533
1989-06-16 16:40	17:03	18:22	102 min	M4.9	5E-5	S21W02	5533
1989-06-16 14:44	14:54	15:48	64 min	M2.4	2E-5	S18W08	5533
1989-06-16 10:23	10:26	10:40	17 min	M1.4	1E-5	S18W01	5533
1989-06-16 10:03	10:05	10:11	8 min	M1	1E-5	S19W70	5524
1989-06-16 03:05	03:22	03:22	17 min	M6.8	7E-5	S16E04	5533
1989-06-16 02:19	22:00	02:45	1466 min	X3	3E-4	S17E03	5533
1989-06-16 02:15	03:13	03:13	58 min	M2.5	2E-5	S16E04	5533
1989-06-15 19:32	20:23	20:43	71 min	M1.2	1E-5	N16W17	5528
1989-06-15 16:41	16:55	17:36	55 min	M2.4	2E-5	N16W16	5528
1989-06-15 16:13	17:14	18:41	148 min	X4.1	4E-4	S21E08	5533
1989-06-15 12:19	12:20	13:07	48 min	M1	1E-5	N15W22	5528
1989-06-15 09:39	09:40	09:47	8 min	M1.6	2E-5	N20E90	5544
1989-06-15 07:42	07:45	07:49	7 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1989-06-14 16:20	16:20	16:59	39 min	M1.3	1E-5	N16W05	5528
1989-06-14 14:29	14:37	15:04	35 min	M1.6	2E-5	S18W80	5521
1989-06-14 13:47	13:47	13:59	12 min	M1	1E-5	N17W01	5528
1989-06-14 11:50	11:55	12:13	23 min	M2.7	3E-5	S16W75	5521
1989-06-14 04:06	04:18	04:29	23 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1989-06-13 11:26	11:27	11:31	5 min	M1.3	1E-5	N20E17	5528
1989-06-12 00:19	00:19	00:36	17 min	M1.2	1E-5	S22E61	5533
1989-06-11 07:02	07:11	07:32	30 min	M1.5	2E-5	S18E72	5533
1989-06-10 17:04	17:11	17:20	16 min	M1.2	1E-5	S20E80	5533
1989-06-10 14:50	14:56	15:25	35 min	M1.7	2E-5	S20E81	5533
1989-06-10 10:53	10:56	11:02	9 min	M1.5	2E-5	N25E61	5528
1989-06-10 10:07	10:07	10:17	10 min	M1.2	1E-5	S21W09	5521
1989-06-10 07:38	07:46	07:57	19 min	M1.3	1E-5	S17E90	5533
1989-06-10 04:14	04:20	04:35	21 min	M5	5E-5	S18E90	5533
1989-06-09 20:52	20:55	20:58	6 min	M6.3	6E-5	S20E90	5533
1989-06-09 19:37	19:41	19:47	10 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1989-06-09 18:24	18:29	18:54	30 min	M2.4	2E-5	—	—
1989-06-09 14:27	14:31	14:37	10 min	M1.9	2E-5	S20E90	5533
1989-06-09 05:11	06:16	06:55	104 min	M2.4	2E-5	S20E10	5521
1989-06-08 22:06	22:32	23:59	113 min	M2.3	2E-5	S22E09	5521
1989-06-08 15:15	15:53	16:50	95 min	M1.8	2E-5	—	—
1989-06-08 11:49	12:05	12:37	48 min	M2.1	2E-5	—	—
1989-06-08 07:08	07:20	07:53	45 min	M1.2	1E-5	S20E24	5521
1989-06-07 18:36	18:50	19:32	56 min	M2.4	2E-5	S19E27	5521
1989-06-07 17:08	17:11	17:58	50 min	M1.1	1E-5	S20E29	5521
1989-06-07 08:49	08:51	09:13	24 min	M1.1	1E-5	S20E33	5521
1989-06-07 08:08	08:10	08:20	12 min	M1.8	2E-5	S16E35	5521
1989-06-06 23:34	23:35	00:28	54 min	M3	3E-5	S21E36	5521
1989-06-06 14:32	14:34	16:25	113 min	M1	1E-5	S19E41	5521
1989-06-06 08:54	09:04	09:27	33 min	M3.1	3E-5	—	—
1989-06-05 23:03	23:16	00:02	59 min	M2.1	2E-5	S20E50	5521
1989-06-05 17:55	18:13	19:16	81 min	M1.2	1E-5	—	—
1989-06-05 17:26	19:36	21:15	229 min	X1	1E-4	S21E52	5521
1989-06-05 09:12	09:14	10:09	57 min	M3.4	3E-5	S21E59	5521
1989-06-05 06:27	06:58	07:38	71 min	M1.3	1E-5	S18E62	5521
1989-06-05 05:18	05:25	05:34	16 min	M1	1E-5	—	—

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