The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Program (GOES) is operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division and supports weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorology research. Part of the GOES Satellite Network are GOES-R series satellites (GOES-16, GOES-17, GOES-18, and GOES-U). For the above 24h and 6h plots of current solar X-ray activity and solar flares we are using raw NOAA data from GOES-18 satellite.

In the modern classification system, in accordance with the peak flux in watts per square metre (W/m2), solar flares are labelled by the letters A, B, C, M or X.  Weaker flares, with letters A and B, have little or no impact on Earth and were added to the system in the 1990s as instruments became more sensitive. M flares are considered as Moderate and X flares as Extreme, with significant potential effect. Large solar flares can affect the Earth’s ionosphere, which could interrupt HF radio communication on the sunlit side of the Earth. Solar flares are also associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which can ultimately lead to geomagnetic storms. Some large flares are accompanied by strong radio bursts that may interfere with other radio frequencies and cause problems for satellite communication and radio navigation.

Hoover a mouse over the above graphs to see flares' strength values and timestamps.

Flares' classification ranges as labelled on the graph: C flares 1.00E-6 to 1.00E-5  M flares 1.00E-5 to 1.00E-4 X flares 1.00E-4 to 1.00E-3