Solar X-ray Flux

This plot, created from x-ray data from the GOES-11 and 12 satellite ,gives the strength of the local x-ray energy near Earth. Solar flares are classified by the scale on the righthand edge from type-A to type-X on this logarithmic scale. The horizontal lines represent factors of 10 in increase. The tic marks on the vertical scales represent, within each decade, the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. A flare is classified by combining the letter and number scales .Fo example, on July 31, the largest flare in the above plot was about a B2.0 .On August 1, the first two flares were about B1.0 and B1.2. Note also that during sunspot minimum conditions, the solar background x-ray emission is rather low .In this plot it is about equal to a flare of class A2 as measured by GOES-12, but during sunspot maximum it is much more intense and is equal to 'B' or even 'C' conditions.

Solar flares are known to affect the ionosphere and cause shortwave radio disturbances.

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