ARCSAT ID NUMBER: AS03

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Probing the Stellar Flare-Coronal Mass Ejection
Relationship

PI: Michael Crosley OBSERVER(S): Michael Crosley

UNCERTIFIED/UNTRAINED OBSERVERS: Michael Crosley

COLLABORATORS: Dr. Rachel Osten, Dr. Colin Norman, Dr. Suzanne Hawley

CONTACT INFORMATION: Michael Crosley: mcrosle1@jhu.edu, 609-902-6548
Dr. Rachel Osten: osten@stsci.edu

TIME REQUESTED: 1 week (October 12-18th)

INSTRUMENT: FlareCam

FILTERS: u-band

COMMENTS: We hope to have simultaneous observations between Apache
Point Observatory and the Janskey Very Large Array telescopes.  We
have proposed at the JVLA (Proposal 15B-291) for 2015B time (October
13 to January 25).  We have requested for 20 hours of observation and
that any time allocation be designated into week long blocks to allow
for easy coordination with APO. The 20 hours are broken down into 5
hour nightly blocks on the 14th - 17th.

BRIEF SCIENCE JUSTIFICATION: Solar eruptive events show a fundamental
association between flare-energy release and transient ejection of
mass (Emslie et al. 2012). It has been more difficult to identify the
stellar counterpart to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) using optical
flare spectroscopy or characteristics of flares at shorter
wavelengths, due to the inability to assign unambiguously the observed
signature to the CME rather than the flare (Leitzinger et
al. 2011). Understanding the effect of stellar magnetic eruptions is
important for a better understanding of how the solar analogy applies
to stellar flaring events, as well as effect that stellar mass
ejections (particularly from M dwarf star planet hosts) can have on
planetary habitability. However, there is a distinct marker for when a
CME may have taken place, which occurs in the radio domain. The radio
signature of coronal mass ejections on the Sun is the so-called type
II burst, which has a distinct signature of a slowly drifting radio
burst, and can be used to place a firm limit on the rate of stellar
CMEs. We concentrate on nearby, well-characterized M dwarfs. These
have the advantage that their flaring rates are known (from numerous
optical observations), and their coronal characteristics are
well-known (for modeling of corona tailored to each star
individually). A coordinated optical-radio flare campaign between APO
and the Low Frequency Array, and APO and the Jansky Very Large Array,
enable association of candidate stellar CME events with optical
flares. Properties of the optical flares will then be examined in
conjunction with those of the CME. We will Follow Eric J. HiltonтАЩs
(PhD Thesis, U. of Washington 2011) Data Acquisition scheme (10s
integration times for a minimum of two hours) as he has done extensive
stellar flare work with the 0.5m at Apache Point Observatory.

REFERENCES:
Emslie, A.G et al. 2012 ApJ 759,71
Leitzinger, M. et al. 2011 A&A 536,62
Hilton, E.J, 2011 The Galactic M Dwarf Flare Rate 18,19