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STELLAR FLARES ARE TRANSIENT EVENTS DURING WHICH MAGNETIC ENERGY ORIGINALLY STORED IN THE MAGNETIC FIELD IS RELEASED THROUGH RECONNECTION IN THE FORM OF VARIOUS ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ENERGY REGIMES (GAMMA-RAYS X-RAYS UV OPTICAL RADIO) AND/OR KINETIC ENERGY OF PARTICLES IN CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS. M DWARFS (M < 0.6 M_SUN T < 4000 K) ARE PRIME TARGETS OF ONGOING PLANET SEARCH MISSIONS LIKE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS) AND CHARACTERIZING EXOPLANET SATELLITE (CHEOPS) AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO HOST PLANETS THAT ARE EARTH-SIZED THAN HIGHER MASS STARS. M DWARFS HAVE ANOTHER IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC: THEY ARE ALSO KNOWN TO BE MAGNETICALLY ACTIVE AND ARE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING VERY STRONG FLARES. WE PROPOSE TO OBTAIN NICER X-RAY DATA OF FOUR NEARBY ACTIVE MID-M DWARFS (ROSS 128 ROSS 154 BARNARD'S STAR AND WOLF 359) SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER ARRAY (ALMA) RADIO AND THE NEIL GEHRELS SWIFT OBSERVATORY (SWIFT) UV DATA. THESE STARS ARE SPECTRAL ANALOGUES OF ANOTHER WIDELY STUDIED FLARING MID-M DWARF WITH A PLANETARY SYSTEM -- PROXIMA CEN -- AND SPAN A WIDER RANGE OF AGES AND ACTIVITY LEVELS. SUCH DATA WILL BE USED TO STUDY THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VARIOUS FLARE PROPERTIES IN X-RAY/UV/RADIO WAVELENGTH.

$0FY2022National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore MD

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