Solar flares and sunspots today
What the Sun itself is doing right now: X-ray flares measured by the GOES satellites and the sunspot regions they came from, straight from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Live dataUpdated on October 7, 2026
Live solar activity
Flare classes run A, B, C, M, X, each letter ten times the X-ray output of the one before, with a number for the position inside the letter: X2 is twice X1 and twenty times M1. A, B and C flares happen constantly and have no effect you would notice; M and X flares are the ones that disturb radio and satellites.
- Largest flare in the last 7 days
- M6.4 (Oct 10, 2026, 2:58 PM)
- Flares in the last 24 hours
- 12
- Active regions
- 9
- Sunspots counted in the latest bulletin
- 54
Flares in the last 24 hours
| Start | Peak class | GOES |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 16, 2026, 12:04 AM | C3.1 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 11:53 PM | C1.9 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 9:31 PM | C1.0 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 8:50 PM | C1.1 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 5:32 PM | C2.8 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 3:49 PM | C4.9 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 3:11 PM | C1.4 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 2:13 PM | C1.0 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 1:55 PM | C1.3 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 7:20 AM | C1.0 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 2:00 AM | C2.8 | 18 |
| Oct 15, 2026, 1:34 AM | B9.4 | 18 |
Active regions
| Region | Location | Area (millionths of the disc) | Sunspots | McIntosh class | C flare chance | M flare chance | X flare chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,551 | S15W06 | 620 | 32 | Eki | 85 % | 25 % | 10 % |
| 4,557 | N07E29 | 50 | 17 | Dri | 35 % | 5 % | 1 % |
| 4,548 | S13W93 | 20 | 1 | Hsx | 5 % | 1 % | 1 % |
| 4,555 | S07W56 | 10 | 3 | Cro | 5 % | 1 % | 1 % |
| 4,553 | N06E06 | 10 | 1 | Axx | 5 % | 1 % | 1 % |
| 4,556 | N03E32 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 % | 1 % | 1 % |
| 4,554 | N07E20 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 % | 1 % | 1 % |
| 4,552 | N23W0* | 0 | 0 | — | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % |
| 4,558 | S08W48 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 % | 1 % | 1 % |
Feed read at Oct 16, 2026, 1:29 AM · All times in UTC. · Active regions: October 15, 2026
A flare is not a geomagnetic storm
This page is about the Sun. A flare is a burst of radiation that arrives in eight minutes and, if it is strong, degrades shortwave radio on the daylit side of Earth almost immediately. A geomagnetic storm is a different event: it needs a coronal mass ejection, a cloud of plasma that takes one to three days to cross to Earth, and it is what drives the Kp index and the aurora.
The two usually come together from the same active region but not always: there are large flares with no ejection aimed at us, and slow ejections with barely a flare. If you want the aurora forecast and the Kp index, those live on our space weather page, not here — we keep them separate on purpose, because they answer different questions.
Why there are more flares some years than others
The Sun runs an activity cycle of roughly 11 years, measured by the sunspot number. Near minimum, weeks can pass with a blank disc and no flares at all; near maximum there are several active regions at once and M-class flares most days. The current cycle, number 25, passed its peak in the mid-2020s, so a busy table here is normal and a quiet one is not a malfunction.
How to read this page
How to read the numbers here
Every value on "Solar flares and sunspots today" comes from the source named beside its section, never from an estimate of our own with no origin.
Where the data comes from
Each section of "Solar flares and sunspots today" names its official source; the verification date sits at the top of the page.
Check the primary source
The live numbers on this page change; the source named here is where to compare the value at the moment you’re reading it.
More about “Solar flares and sunspots today”
Eleven years, not a fixed number
The solar cycle "Solar flares and sunspots today" mentions isn’t exactly 11 years: recorded cycles have run from 9 to 14 years, minimum to minimum. It’s an average rhythm, not a clock, which is why predicting the next maximum to the month remains an open problem in solar physics.
Words on this page
Standard uncertainty
The margin attached to a measured value, usually written in parentheses on the last digits. A constant that is "exact by definition" has zero standard uncertainty; a measured one, like the gravitational constant G, always carries some.
Standard definition by BIPM — Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (SI) · Standard uncertainty
Astronomical unit
The solar system’s reference distance, fixed at exactly 149,597,870,700 metres since 2012, close to the average Earth–Sun distance. It saves writing every planet’s orbit in kilometres with ten digits.
Standard definition by IAU — International Astronomical Union · Astronomical unit
Launch window
The span of time in which a rocket can lift off and still reach its planned orbit or destination. For a trip to another planet that window can last only a few weeks and only returns at the next favourable alignment, so missing it costs months or years of waiting.
Exoplanet
A planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. Most were found indirectly, by the star’s faint dimming as the planet crosses in front of it (transit) or by the gravitational wobble it causes in the star (radial velocity), not by direct image.
Standard definition by NASA Exoplanet Archive · Exoplanet
Mole
The SI counting unit for atoms, molecules or other entities: one mole is exactly 6.02214076 × 10²³ of them, by the definition fixed in 2019. It is what ties a mass in grams to a number of particles.
Standard definition by BIPM — Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (SI) · Mole