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

B4.2

2026-10-27 02:20 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) · 10/27/26

Illustrative rendering: procedural prominence loops and flashes; classes from the GOES catalogue below.

Catalogued flares

94,061

1975 → 2026-10-27

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/27/26 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) · 10/27/26 Current · provisional

Latest catalogued flare

B4.2

2026-10-27 02:20 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) · 10/27/26

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) · 10/27/26

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) · 10/27/26 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) · 10/27/26 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) · 10/27/26

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Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1982-06-20 04:31	04:37	04:46	15 min	M1.3	1E-5	N13W28	3776
1982-06-20 02:42	02:43	02:48	6 min	M3.5	4E-5	N11W18	3776
1982-06-20 02:00	02:04	02:11	11 min	M1.7	2E-5	N11W28	3776
1982-06-20 00:50	00:55	01:08	18 min	M1	1E-5	N12W15	3776
1982-06-19 23:47	23:51	01:08	81 min	M5	5E-5	N13W17	3776
1982-06-19 23:14	23:14	23:21	7 min	M1.1	1E-5	N11W26	3776
1982-06-19 22:18	22:25	22:53	35 min	M1	1E-5	N15E15	3781
1982-06-19 17:19	17:55	18:27	68 min	M2.3	2E-5	N14W24	3776
1982-06-18 19:37	19:38	19:44	7 min	M1.9	2E-5	N12W08	3776
1982-06-17 11:39	11:40	11:48	9 min	M1.1	1E-5	N10E22	3776
1982-06-17 08:50	09:09	09:39	49 min	M5.6	6E-5	N10E22	3776
1982-06-17 00:38	00:43	01:32	54 min	M2.6	3E-5	N11E23	3776
1982-06-16 21:19	21:38	22:04	45 min	M1.3	1E-5	N12E23	3776
1982-06-16 18:30	18:39	19:21	51 min	M3.5	4E-5	S22E51	3780
1982-06-16 18:23	21:39	21:39	196 min	M1	1E-5	N10E19	3776
1982-06-16 00:09	00:14	01:48	99 min	X2	2E-4	N11E35	3776
1982-06-15 18:17	19:00	20:08	111 min	M2.2	2E-5	N12E33	3776
1982-06-15 13:09	13:12	13:58	49 min	X1.3	1E-4	S22E66	3780
1982-06-15 11:35	12:22	13:08	93 min	M5.3	5E-5	N13E36	3776
1982-06-15 08:20	08:35	10:10	110 min	X3	3E-4	N13E47	3776
1982-06-15 06:06	06:19	07:02	56 min	M3.7	4E-5	S21E69	3780
1982-06-15 04:04	04:06	04:20	16 min	M1.3	1E-5	N13E47	3776
1982-06-15 00:18	00:47	05:04	286 min	X2.4	2E-4	N10E46	3776
1982-06-14 22:31	22:33	22:52	21 min	M5.4	5E-5	S09W90	3763
1982-06-14 19:04	19:12	19:21	17 min	M2.1	2E-5	S13W86	3763
1982-06-14 16:15	16:27	16:45	30 min	M1.7	2E-5	—	—
1982-06-14 12:41	12:42	13:34	53 min	M1.2	1E-5	N10E54	3776
1982-06-14 10:58	11:10	11:43	45 min	M2	2E-5	N11E53	3776
1982-06-14 05:58	05:58	06:11	13 min	M1.1	1E-5	S14W77	3763
1982-06-14 04:20	04:28	05:02	42 min	X1.2	1E-4	—	—
1982-06-14 02:57	03:01	03:47	50 min	M1.9	2E-5	S13W77	3763
1982-06-13 23:38	23:38	23:52	14 min	M1.1	1E-5	S12W73	3763
1982-06-13 22:09	22:35	23:17	68 min	M1.8	2E-5	S13W71	3763
1982-06-13 21:26	21:28	22:38	72 min	M2.1	2E-5	N08E62	3776
1982-06-13 16:18	16:19	17:04	46 min	M2.1	2E-5	N12E60	3776
1982-06-13 09:32	09:34	09:56	24 min	M2	2E-5	S10W63	3763
1982-06-13 07:34	07:46	09:14	100 min	X2.9	3E-4	N10E76	3776
1982-06-13 02:54	03:01	03:20	26 min	M1	1E-5	N10E75	3776
1982-06-12 16:51	16:59	17:12	21 min	M3.5	4E-5	—	3776
1982-06-12 16:17	16:32	16:46	29 min	M2.2	2E-5	—	3776
1982-06-12 15:35	15:42	15:51	16 min	M1.2	1E-5	—	3776
1982-06-12 13:47	14:22	18:40	293 min	M3.4	3E-5	N11E78	3776
1982-06-12 09:11	09:13	09:54	43 min	M3.7	4E-5	N12E90	3776
1982-06-12 08:33	08:41	08:51	18 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	3776
1982-06-12 08:25	08:27	09:02	37 min	M1.2	1E-5	N12E90	3776
1982-06-12 03:12	03:44	04:33	81 min	X3.6	4E-4	N10E83	3776
1982-06-12 00:37	00:50	01:07	30 min	M1.2	1E-5	N15E81	3776
1982-06-11 23:49	23:52	00:00	11 min	M1	1E-5	—	3776
1982-06-11 21:27	21:31	21:35	8 min	M1.7	2E-5	—	3776
1982-06-11 16:44	16:47	16:53	9 min	M1.9	2E-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 27, 2026 · SHA-256 5d2e8b2d3452…
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