Solar Flare WatchFlares in solar cycle 21
C14,635
M2,184
X168
LargestX13.01984-04-24
X flares by year
Cycles compared
| Cycle | Start | M | X | Largest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1976-03 | 2184 | 168 | X13.0 |
| 22 | 1986-09 | 2022 | 153 | X20.0 |
| 23 | 1996-08 | 1436 | 125 | X28.0 |
| 24 | 2008-12 | 733 | 51 | X14.6 |
| 25 | 2019-12 | 1980 | 102 | X8.9 |
Top 20 flares
| Date | Begin | Peak | Min | Class | Location | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984-04-24 | 23:56 | 00:01 | 104 | X13.0 | S12E43 | 4474 |
| 1982-12-15 | 01:50 | 01:59 | 96 | X12.9 | S10E24 | 4026 |
| 1982-06-06 | 16:30 | 16:54 | 162 | X12.0 | S09E25 | 3763 |
| 1982-12-17 | 18:19 | 18:58 | 204 | X10.1 | S08W21 | 4025 |
| 1984-05-20 | 22:18 | 22:41 | 139 | X10.1 | S09E52 | 4492 |
| 1982-07-09 | 07:31 | 07:38 | 53 | X9.8 | N17E73 | 3804 |
| 1980-11-06 | 03:40 | 03:48 | 108 | X9.0 | S12E74 | 2779 |
| 1982-06-03 | 11:41 | 11:48 | 105 | X8.0 | S09E72 | 3763 |
| 1982-07-12 | 09:16 | 09:18 | 284 | X7.1 | N11E37 | 3804 |
| 1981-04-24 | 13:46 | 14:11 | 229 | X5.9 | N18W50 | 3049 |
| 1982-06-04 | 13:13 | 13:30 | 45 | X5.9 | S10E55 | 3763 |
| 1981-04-27 | 07:20 | 08:20 | 145 | X5.5 | – | 3049 |
| 1982-12-15 | 16:20 | 16:37 | 89 | X5.0 | S10E15 | 4026 |
| 1985-01-21 | 23:52 | 00:11 | 165 | X4.7 | S08W38 | 4617 |
| 1982-11-26 | 02:30 | 02:37 | 50 | X4.5 | S11W87 | 3994 |
| 1980-11-05 | 13:41 | 13:55 | 77 | X4.4 | – | 2779 |
| 1983-02-03 | 05:43 | 06:19 | 179 | X4.1 | S19W08 | 4077 |
| 1984-05-19 | 21:51 | 22:00 | 9 | X4.1 | S07E67 | 4492 |
| 1981-02-26 | 19:22 | 19:53 | 41 | X4.0 | S15E50 | 2958 |
| 1980-10-25 | 09:42 | 09:50 | 28 | X3.9 | N19W59 | 2751 |
All times UTC. Until June 2017 classes are NOAA's reports of the time (GOES-15 and earlier included a 0.7 scaling factor); later classes come from calibrated GOES-16/18 data, so the same flare reads about 1.4× larger. Do not compare the two periods directly.
About this page
Cycle 21, which began in March 1976, has 16,987 C+ flares on record, 168 of them X-class.