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 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) · 10/25/26 Current · provisional

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 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) · 10/25/26 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) · 10/25/26

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Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
2004-07-16 14:22	14:28	14:31	9 min	M1.2	1E-5	S11E30	10649
2004-07-16 11:49	11:55	12:01	12 min	X3.6	4E-4	S11E35	10649
2004-07-16 08:32	08:41	08:46	14 min	X1.1	1E-4	S10E36	10649
2004-07-15 23:43	00:06	00:12	29 min	X1.3	1E-4	S11E41	10649
2004-07-15 16:15	16:24	16:28	13 min	X1.6	2E-4	S11E45	10649
2004-07-14 23:30	23:41	23:48	18 min	X1.8	2E-4	S10E54	10649
2004-07-14 16:12	16:16	16:18	6 min	M1	1E-5	S11E56	10649
2004-07-14 03:02	03:23	03:27	25 min	M6.2	6E-5	N14W63	10646
2004-07-13 17:24	17:32	17:36	12 min	M6.2	6E-5	N13W56	10646
2004-07-13 16:33	16:38	16:42	9 min	M1.1	1E-5	S10E65	10649
2004-07-13 09:59	10:08	10:12	13 min	M2.9	3E-5	S10E72	10649
2004-07-13 06:40	06:48	06:55	15 min	M5.4	5E-5	N12W52	10646
2004-07-12 22:09	22:17	22:23	14 min	M6.7	7E-5	N14W45	10646
2004-07-12 05:36	06:08	06:59	83 min	M1.6	2E-5	S08E90	—
2004-06-13 09:27	09:56	10:15	48 min	M1	1E-5	N12E90	10634
2004-04-25 03:02	03:37	03:42	40 min	M2.2	2E-5	N15E37	10599
2004-04-23 19:02	19:12	19:14	12 min	M1.1	1E-5	S08W83	10597
2004-04-23 09:41	09:50	09:52	11 min	M1.5	2E-5	S08W90	10597
2004-04-22 00:03	00:19	00:24	21 min	M1.2	1E-5	S07E18	10596
2004-04-15 14:37	14:44	14:48	11 min	M1.2	1E-5	S15W38	10591
2004-04-06 10:30	11:28	11:46	76 min	M2.4	2E-5	S18E15	10588
2004-04-05 03:37	03:55	04:13	36 min	M1.7	2E-5	S18E35	10588
2004-03-25 03:29	03:39	03:43	14 min	M2.3	2E-5	N12E82	10582
2004-03-24 22:14	22:29	22:35	21 min	M1.5	2E-5	N15E90	10582
2004-03-18 21:26	21:36	21:40	14 min	M1.5	2E-5	N15E77	10578
2004-03-18 04:08	04:17	04:27	19 min	M1.6	2E-5	—	10574
2004-03-06 11:08	11:17	11:41	33 min	M1.3	1E-5	—	10570
2004-02-26 21:14	21:30	21:39	25 min	M5.7	6E-5	N14W26	10564
2004-02-26 00:50	01:03	01:10	20 min	X1.1	1E-4	N14W15	10564
2004-02-08 19:24	19:51	20:02	38 min	M1.2	1E-5	S08E68	10554
2004-01-20 06:29	06:43	06:47	18 min	M6.1	6E-5	S15W13	10540
2004-01-19 11:30	11:40	11:46	16 min	M1	1E-5	S16W00	10540
2004-01-19 04:25	04:32	04:35	10 min	M1	1E-5	S17E05	10540
2004-01-17 23:07	23:17	23:21	14 min	M1.4	1E-5	S15E18	10540
2004-01-17 16:35	16:50	16:59	24 min	M5	5E-5	S15E19	10540
2004-01-09 00:33	00:44	00:54	21 min	M3.2	3E-5	N02E49	10537
2004-01-09 00:13	00:22	00:27	14 min	M1.1	1E-5	N03E49	10537
2004-01-08 03:53	04:07	04:21	28 min	M1.3	1E-5	N01E64	10537
2004-01-07 09:14	09:27	09:33	19 min	M8.3	8E-5	N06E75	10537
2004-01-07 02:43	03:04	03:21	38 min	M4.5	4E-5	N02E76	10537
2004-01-06 05:13	05:29	05:36	23 min	M5.8	6E-5	N05E90	10537
2004-01-05 01:50	02:45	04:20	150 min	M6.9	7E-5	—	—
2003-12-31 17:21	17:24	17:26	5 min	M1	1E-5	—	10528
2003-12-26 18:13	18:28	18:33	20 min	M1.5	2E-5	N09W30	10528
2003-12-06 14:39	14:46	14:53	14 min	M2	2E-5	—	—
2003-12-06 09:58	10:20	10:28	30 min	M1.3	1E-5	—	—
2003-12-02 21:50	22:00	22:07	17 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	10508
2003-12-02 11:47	12:08	12:22	35 min	M1.4	1E-5	—	10508
2003-11-20 22:42	22:53	22:58	16 min	M5.8	6E-5	N02W17	10501
2003-11-20 06:35	06:47	06:53	18 min	M9.6	1E-4	N01W08	10501

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