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
1982-03-30 12:18	12:24	13:14	56 min	M2.1	2E-5	N11W20	3659
1982-03-30 03:22	03:49	06:26	184 min	X2.8	3E-4	N13W11	3659
1982-03-30 00:36	00:40	01:14	38 min	M2.1	2E-5	N16E30	3667
1982-03-29 07:04	07:09	07:42	38 min	M1	1E-5	N07W05	3659
1982-03-28 08:04	08:08	08:19	15 min	M2.1	2E-5	S20E41	3662
1982-03-27 13:10	13:18	14:47	97 min	M4.9	5E-5	N11E18	3659
1982-03-26 04:45	04:49	04:53	8 min	M2.2	2E-5	—	3662
1982-03-25 15:25	15:27	15:51	26 min	M2	2E-5	N08E38	3659
1982-03-25 00:34	00:44	01:04	30 min	M1.2	1E-5	N10E57	3659
1982-03-24 20:28	20:49	22:07	99 min	M1.9	2E-5	N12E61	3659
1982-03-23 04:18	04:22	04:36	18 min	M1	1E-5	N10E77	3659
1982-03-19 14:30	14:38	16:48	138 min	M2.7	3E-5	S10W29	3643
1982-03-19 03:05	04:03	05:33	148 min	M2.6	3E-5	S06W26	3643
1982-03-18 20:24	20:34	20:45	21 min	M1.9	2E-5	S06W21	3643
1982-03-18 03:03	03:14	03:17	14 min	M1.1	1E-5	S14W17	3643
1982-03-15 22:37	22:40	23:43	66 min	M1.9	2E-5	N09E18	3644
1982-03-13 11:50	11:57	12:01	11 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1982-03-10 01:59	02:16	03:39	100 min	M2.6	3E-5	S02E80	3640
1982-03-08 19:10	19:23	19:44	34 min	M6.1	6E-5	—	3628
1982-03-08 18:31	18:50	19:02	31 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	3628
1982-03-07 02:08	02:21	02:25	17 min	X2.7	3E-4	N17W53	3628
1982-03-05 01:30	01:48	02:51	81 min	M4.2	4E-5	S24E01	3629
1982-03-03 02:30	02:57	03:36	66 min	M1	1E-5	S23E26	3629
1982-02-28 03:50	03:52	04:23	33 min	M2	2E-5	N19E24	3625
1982-02-26 02:32	02:36	02:46	14 min	M2.2	2E-5	N13E46	3625
1982-02-26 02:15	02:24	02:58	43 min	M1.7	2E-5	N12E65	3628
1982-02-24 05:33	06:03	06:23	50 min	M1.9	2E-5	—	—
1982-02-20 16:56	17:06	18:54	118 min	M1.8	2E-5	S15E65	3614
1982-02-20 08:15	08:37	09:29	74 min	M3	3E-5	N00W38	3607
1982-02-19 12:23	12:48	13:06	43 min	M1.9	2E-5	—	3607
1982-02-18 12:04	12:18	13:16	72 min	M3.4	3E-5	N01W13	3607
1982-02-18 08:03	08:07	08:24	21 min	M1.8	2E-5	N09E30	3610
1982-02-17 20:27	20:37	22:30	123 min	M1.4	1E-5	N01W04	3607
1982-02-17 08:53	09:02	09:06	13 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1982-02-16 17:55	18:02	18:12	17 min	M1.8	2E-5	—	3594
1982-02-15 02:22	02:27	03:55	93 min	M1.3	1E-5	N06E36	—
1982-02-14 19:08	19:25	20:07	59 min	M1.9	2E-5	S12W69	—
1982-02-14 08:40	08:40	08:55	15 min	M2.6	3E-5	S10W41	3603
1982-02-14 02:41	02:44	03:17	36 min	M1.1	1E-5	S12W51	3594
1982-02-13 19:53	19:57	20:36	43 min	M1.3	1E-5	N04E53	3607
1982-02-12 20:55	21:02	21:12	17 min	M3.6	4E-5	S08W18	3603
1982-02-12 20:20	20:38	21:20	60 min	M4.6	5E-5	S10W40	3594
1982-02-12 15:49	16:06	16:51	62 min	M1.2	1E-5	S13W37	3594
1982-02-11 11:08	11:13	11:16	8 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1982-02-10 19:00	19:02	19:26	26 min	M3.2	3E-5	S12E09	3603
1982-02-10 14:41	17:56	18:15	214 min	M3.7	4E-5	—	3594
1982-02-10 02:08	02:09	02:23	15 min	M1.2	1E-5	S20W83	3583
1982-02-09 23:56	00:05	00:24	28 min	M3.8	4E-5	N16E54	3602
1982-02-09 12:52	13:12	13:18	26 min	M9.5	1E-4	—	—
1982-02-09 10:02	10:10	10:18	16 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