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
1989-01-18 07:51	08:12	08:52	61 min	M9	9E-5	S30W68	5312
1989-01-18 06:02	06:07	06:13	11 min	X1.4	1E-4	S30W65	5312
1989-01-16 21:07	21:18	23:02	115 min	M7.2	7E-5	S30W51	5312
1989-01-16 14:04	14:07	15:51	107 min	M1.8	2E-5	S32W42	5312
1989-01-16 09:51	10:01	14:04	253 min	M5.1	5E-5	—	—
1989-01-16 07:25	07:33	09:06	101 min	M2.1	2E-5	S30W37	5312
1989-01-16 05:16	05:30	05:59	43 min	M1.4	1E-5	S31W37	5312
1989-01-16 02:07	02:50	03:05	58 min	M1.7	2E-5	S31W40	5312
1989-01-15 14:46	14:50	15:51	65 min	M4.5	4E-5	S31W36	5312
1989-01-15 11:38	12:00	12:41	63 min	M1	1E-5	S31W30	5312
1989-01-15 06:58	06:59	07:06	8 min	M1	1E-5	S31W31	5312
1989-01-14 20:45	21:39	22:09	84 min	X1.1	1E-4	S29W26	5312
1989-01-14 20:18	20:45	20:48	30 min	M2.4	2E-5	S31W24	5312
1989-01-14 12:53	12:53	13:18	25 min	M1.1	1E-5	S30W22	5312
1989-01-14 01:54	03:14	04:19	145 min	X2.1	2E-4	S32W10	5312
1989-01-14 01:15	02:33	02:54	99 min	M6.2	6E-5	S31W13	5312
1989-01-14 01:14	01:15	01:22	8 min	M1	1E-5	N26E29	5318
1989-01-13 20:52	21:06	01:06	254 min	M2.8	3E-5	—	—
1989-01-13 19:27	20:14	20:35	68 min	M1.6	2E-5	N18E53	5321
1989-01-13 19:10	19:15	20:10	60 min	M2	2E-5	—	—
1989-01-13 17:45	18:26	19:27	102 min	M1.4	1E-5	N18E55	5321
1989-01-13 15:18	16:42	17:59	161 min	M6.1	6E-5	S30W07	5312
1989-01-13 11:25	11:42	14:27	182 min	M9.2	9E-5	—	—
1989-01-13 07:29	09:18	09:45	136 min	X2.3	2E-4	S31W05	5312
1989-01-13 02:51	02:55	03:16	25 min	M2.1	2E-5	S34E06	5312
1989-01-12 23:03	23:08	00:26	83 min	M1.5	2E-5	S30E03	5312
1989-01-12 19:29	19:29	21:18	109 min	M4.7	5E-5	N20E44	5317
1989-01-12 03:17	03:23	03:57	40 min	M1.4	1E-5	S34E19	5312
1989-01-11 14:28	14:33	15:39	71 min	M1.2	1E-5	—	—
1989-01-11 08:50	08:54	09:04	14 min	M1.2	1E-5	—	—
1989-01-11 05:35	05:50	06:05	30 min	M1.9	2E-5	S34E28	5312
1989-01-11 03:45	03:46	03:52	7 min	M1	1E-5	S32E32	5312
1989-01-10 23:51	23:53	00:07	16 min	M2.1	2E-5	S34E33	5312
1989-01-10 19:23	19:31	20:26	63 min	X1.4	1E-4	S31E30	5312
1989-01-10 17:55	18:04	19:08	73 min	M1.6	2E-5	N32W01	5315
1989-01-10 16:33	16:55	18:15	102 min	M2.6	3E-5	S34E37	5312
1989-01-10 12:04	12:12	12:28	24 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	—
1989-01-10 05:22	05:25	05:48	26 min	M3.6	4E-5	S35E43	5312
1989-01-10 04:49	04:52	05:08	19 min	M1.4	1E-5	S31E61	5316
1989-01-09 23:26	23:28	00:30	64 min	M3	3E-5	S32E41	5312
1989-01-09 18:14	18:21	20:20	126 min	M8.3	8E-5	S32E45	5312
1989-01-09 14:42	15:23	16:37	115 min	M1.3	1E-5	S31E44	5312
1989-01-09 12:47	13:09	14:15	88 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1989-01-09 05:32	05:47	07:56	144 min	M2.1	2E-5	S15E26	5311
1989-01-09 03:58	04:15	04:35	37 min	M2	2E-5	S30E47	5312
1989-01-09 00:00	00:09	01:17	77 min	M3.2	3E-5	N29E21	5315
1989-01-08 22:25	22:36	23:00	35 min	M4.9	5E-5	S34E53	5312
1989-01-08 18:48	18:55	19:19	31 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1989-01-08 17:57	18:09	18:38	41 min	M1.5	2E-5	S35E63	5312
1989-01-08 16:04	16:17	18:01	117 min	M5.6	6E-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