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

B4.3

2026-10-25 03:33 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) · 10/25/26

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

Catalogued flares

94,036

1975 → 2026-10-25

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/25/26

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) · 10/25/26

Latest catalogued flare

B4.3

2026-10-25 03:33 UTC · AR 14560

GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/25/26

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) · 10/25/26

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) · 10/25/26 GOES X-ray flare lists (NOAA SWPC/NGDC events, yearly compilations by NASA GSFC) · U.S. Government work, public domain (NOAA/NASA) · 10/25/26

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) · 10/25/26

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) · 10/25/26

Year

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Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
2005-07-14 15:16	15:25	15:28	12 min	M1.3	1E-5	N09W90	10786
2005-07-14 08:16	08:55	09:29	73 min	X1.2	1E-4	N11W90	10786
2005-07-14 03:57	05:25	05:43	106 min	M9.1	9E-5	N09W90	10786
2005-07-14 01:02	01:23	01:28	26 min	M1	1E-5	N10W90	10786
2005-07-13 19:49	19:54	19:58	9 min	M1.2	1E-5	N08W90	10786
2005-07-13 17:02	17:09	17:13	11 min	M1.2	1E-5	N13W82	10786
2005-07-13 12:01	12:49	13:38	97 min	M5	5E-5	N11W90	10786
2005-07-13 10:03	10:19	10:24	21 min	M3.2	3E-5	N08W79	10786
2005-07-13 00:35	01:16	01:47	72 min	M1.1	1E-5	N11W82	10786
2005-07-12 20:35	20:52	21:02	27 min	M1.3	1E-5	N09W72	10786
2005-07-12 13:47	14:24	16:07	140 min	M1.5	2E-5	N09W67	10786
2005-07-12 10:47	11:06	11:25	38 min	M1	1E-5	N12W69	10786
2005-07-09 19:47	20:06	20:19	32 min	M2.8	3E-5	N12W28	10786
2005-07-07 14:07	14:29	14:40	33 min	M4.9	5E-5	N09E03	10786
2005-06-16 18:01	18:22	18:42	41 min	M4	4E-5	N08W90	10775
2005-06-03 09:51	10:26	10:45	54 min	M1	1E-5	N15E90	—
2005-06-03 02:03	02:11	02:16	13 min	M1.3	1E-5	S17E22	10772
2005-06-01 00:36	00:43	00:46	10 min	M1.7	2E-5	S18E49	10772
2005-05-27 09:53	10:30	10:40	47 min	M1.1	1E-5	S08E04	10767
2005-05-17 00:31	00:39	00:52	21 min	M1.8	2E-5	S15W00	10763
2005-05-16 06:56	07:08	07:15	19 min	M1.6	2E-5	S16E14	10763
2005-05-16 00:33	00:43	00:50	17 min	M1.4	1E-5	S17E17	10763
2005-05-15 20:27	20:36	20:42	15 min	M3.5	4E-5	S16E15	10763
2005-05-13 14:13	14:57	15:28	75 min	M8	8E-5	N12E11	10759
2005-05-12 15:33	15:41	15:45	12 min	M1.4	1E-5	N11E21	10759
2005-05-12 05:27	05:33	05:37	10 min	M1.6	2E-5	N11E30	10759
2005-05-11 17:22	17:38	17:55	33 min	M1.1	1E-5	S10W47	10758
2005-05-11 04:11	04:41	04:56	45 min	M1.2	1E-5	S11W45	10758
2005-05-10 03:03	03:23	03:36	33 min	M1.3	1E-5	S10W30	10758
2005-05-07 05:57	06:13	06:19	22 min	M1.4	1E-5	S05W90	10756
2005-05-06 09:11	09:28	09:35	24 min	M1.3	1E-5	S04W76	10756
2005-02-19 09:36	10:01	10:13	37 min	M3.3	3E-5	N12W90	10732
2005-01-23 00:28	00:51	01:01	33 min	M1	1E-5	N15W90	10720
2005-01-21 12:47	12:55	13:10	23 min	M1.2	1E-5	S06W90	10719
2005-01-21 09:10	09:16	09:19	9 min	M1.7	2E-5	N19W81	10720
2005-01-20 05:36	06:01	06:26	50 min	X7.1	7E-4	N14W61	10720
2005-01-19 14:32	14:40	14:48	16 min	M1.6	2E-5	N16W59	10720
2005-01-19 09:19	09:24	09:29	10 min	M2.7	3E-5	N18W47	10720
2005-01-19 07:03	07:22	07:40	37 min	X1.3	1E-4	N15W51	10720
2005-01-19 05:58	06:31	06:55	57 min	M6.7	7E-5	N16W53	10720
2005-01-18 14:38	14:51	14:59	21 min	M4.6	5E-5	N14W40	10720
2005-01-18 10:23	10:32	10:59	36 min	M1.6	2E-5	N16W40	10720
2005-01-17 05:59	08:52	09:07	188 min	X3.8	4E-4	N15W25	10720
2005-01-17 02:10	02:21	02:32	22 min	M2.6	3E-5	N15W21	10720
2005-01-16 20:55	21:03	21:22	27 min	M2.4	2E-5	N15W19	10720
2005-01-15 21:25	22:02	22:31	66 min	X2.6	3E-4	N14W08	10720
2005-01-15 21:01	21:08	21:16	15 min	M1	1E-5	N14W07	10720
2005-01-15 13:08	13:23	13:39	31 min	M3.2	3E-5	S08W12	10718
2005-01-15 10:41	10:48	10:50	9 min	M1.2	1E-5	N14E02	10720
2005-01-15 04:54	05:38	06:17	83 min	M8.6	9E-5	N11E06	10720

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 25, 2026 · SHA-256 a1d99f7354e3…
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