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

Minimum class

Sort

Export CSV

Start (UTC)	Peak	End	Duration	Class	Peak flux (W/m²)	Position	Active region
1994-01-07 08:37	08:43	08:45	8 min	M1.3	1E-5	S09W45	7646
1994-01-05 05:45	06:04	06:25	40 min	M1	1E-5	S13W23	7647
1994-01-02 21:48	21:56	22:03	15 min	M6.5	6E-5	N13E15	7645
1993-12-30 04:40	04:55	05:06	26 min	M1.6	2E-5	N10E70	7645
1993-12-28 15:50	15:59	16:06	16 min	M1.1	1E-5	N07W37	7640
1993-12-27 17:36	17:53	17:59	23 min	M1.9	2E-5	N10W20	7640
1993-12-26 02:53	03:12	03:21	28 min	M1.5	2E-5	N06W02	7640
1993-12-25 16:41	16:56	17:00	19 min	M1.5	2E-5	N07E06	7640
1993-12-24 17:03	17:15	17:24	21 min	M1.1	1E-5	N07E20	7640
1993-12-24 13:50	14:07	14:16	26 min	M1.3	1E-5	N08E29	7640
1993-12-22 16:21	16:26	16:28	7 min	M1.4	1E-5	N07E45	7640
1993-11-13 04:55	05:28	05:47	52 min	M2.1	2E-5	N08E73	7618
1993-11-13 03:10	03:17	03:21	11 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1993-11-12 01:14	01:25	01:35	21 min	M2	2E-5	N08E82	7618
1993-10-09 18:05	18:15	18:21	16 min	M3.5	4E-5	N11W78	7590
1993-10-09 07:04	07:11	07:20	16 min	M1.1	1E-5	N11W78	7590
1993-10-02 05:28	05:33	05:36	8 min	M1.4	1E-5	N10E24	7590
1993-09-27 21:27	21:49	22:01	34 min	M1.8	2E-5	N12E76	7590
1993-09-27 11:04	11:12	11:18	14 min	M1.8	2E-5	—	—
1993-08-11 07:54	08:23	08:35	41 min	M1.5	2E-5	N07W48	7562
1993-07-04 09:02	09:29	10:42	100 min	M1.8	2E-5	S11W37	7530
1993-07-04 05:40	05:50	05:56	16 min	M1.6	2E-5	S16W38	7530
1993-07-03 08:36	09:02	09:10	34 min	M1.6	2E-5	S13W26	7530
1993-07-02 11:11	11:21	11:26	15 min	M4.3	4E-5	S11W14	7530
1993-06-27 09:06	09:26	09:37	31 min	M3.6	4E-5	S09E58	7530
1993-06-26 12:53	13:07	13:15	22 min	M1.1	1E-5	S11E62	7530
1993-06-25 23:38	23:45	23:48	10 min	M1.1	1E-5	S10E77	7530
1993-06-25 01:02	01:22	01:32	30 min	M5.1	5E-5	—	—
1993-06-24 16:10	16:18	16:28	18 min	M1.3	1E-5	—	—
1993-06-24 15:16	15:27	15:45	29 min	M4.2	4E-5	S12E90	—
1993-06-24 05:16	05:35	05:52	36 min	M9.7	1E-4	S11E64	7529
1993-06-10 03:09	04:08	04:20	71 min	M1.9	2E-5	S12W67	7518
1993-06-09 16:25	16:38	16:49	24 min	M2.2	2E-5	S12W59	7518
1993-06-07 23:47	00:15	00:41	54 min	M1.1	1E-5	—	—
1993-06-07 11:51	12:25	12:43	52 min	M5.4	5E-5	S10W30	7518
1993-06-03 21:17	21:36	21:45	28 min	M1	1E-5	—	—
1993-06-03 13:48	13:54	13:57	9 min	M1	1E-5	N15W46	7514
1993-05-30 03:05	03:33	03:47	42 min	M1	1E-5	N16E18	7515
1993-05-28 00:55	01:10	01:22	27 min	M1.4	1E-5	—	—
1993-05-27 15:45	15:55	16:02	17 min	M1.2	1E-5	N12E53	7515
1993-05-07 18:20	19:38	20:30	130 min	M1.6	2E-5	N14E41	7500
1993-04-22 12:04	12:11	12:17	13 min	M1.5	2E-5	N11E04	7477
1993-04-18 17:02	17:15	17:21	19 min	M8.7	9E-5	N10E55	7477
1993-04-06 21:43	21:46	21:52	9 min	M1.5	2E-5	—	—
1993-03-29 22:58	23:05	23:17	19 min	M2.6	3E-5	N04E31	7461
1993-03-29 10:48	10:58	11:03	15 min	M1	1E-5	N04E36	7461
1993-03-23 00:17	00:53	01:56	99 min	M2.3	2E-5	N18W78	7448
1993-03-21 02:19	02:40	03:06	47 min	M2.1	2E-5	N16W47	7448
1993-03-19 23:11	00:06	00:59	108 min	M1.8	2E-5	N18W37	7448
1993-03-15 18:45	20:35	21:26	161 min	M2.9	3E-5	S03W88	7440

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