THE GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO EXPLORE THE INCIDENCE OF STELLAR FLARING IN A SET OF SIMULTANEOUS GALEX-KEPLER DATA TO EXPAND OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW RADIATION IF DISTRIBUTED IN DIFFERENT STELLAR FLARES. THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL DRASTICALLY ENLARGE (BY A FACTOR OF APPROXIMATELY 100) THE NUMBER OF SIMULTANEOUSLY OBSERVED MULTI-WAVELENGTH STELLAR FLARES. FROM THESE FLARES THE RADIATED ENERGY FRACTIONATIONS IN THE OPTICAL AND NUV BAND PASSES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION WILL BE DETERMINED. THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR TESTING THE CONTINUATION OF THE POWER-LAW DISTRIBUTION OF FLARE OCCURRENCE RATE AND EXAMINING FLARE HEATING MODELS UNDER A RANGE OF DIFFERENT ENERGY INPUT REGIMES. OPTICAL FLARES ARE EASIER TO OBSERVE WITH BROAD BAND WHITE-LIGHT FILTERS AND SENSITIVE SPACE MISSIONS YET SHORTER WAVELENGTHS ARE MORE RESPONSIVE TO THE IMPULSIVE NATURE OF THE FLARE AND REVEAL MORE ABOUT THE TIMESCALES OVER WHICH THE FLARE ENERGY INPUT OCCURS. SHORTER WAVELENGTHS ARE ALSO MORE IMPACTFUL FOR THE STELLAR ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING PENETRATING DEEPER INTO AN EXOPLANET S ATMOSPHERE. MULTI-WAVELENGTH MEASUREMENTS ENABLE ESTIMATION OF THE FLARE INCREASE AT NUV WAVELENGTHS FOR FLARES WITHOUT NUV MEASUREMENTS; THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL ENABLE EXTENSION TO ALL OF THE FLARES OBSERVED BY KEPLER AND TESS.
$116,012FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Association Of Universities For Research In Astronomy, Inc., Tucson AZ