Bibcode
Kowalski, Adam F.; Wisniewski, John P.; Hawley, Suzanne L.; Osten, Rachel A.; Brown, Alexander; Fariña, C.; Valenti, Jeff A.; Brown, Stephen; Xilouris, Manolis; Schmidt, Sarah J.; Johns-Krull, Christopher
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 871, Issue 2, article id. 167, 23 pp. (2019).
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2
2019
Journal
Citations
47
Refereed citations
46
Description
We present near-UV (NUV) flare spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST)/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph during two moderate-amplitude U-band
flares on the dM4e star GJ 1243. These spectra are some of the first
accurately flux-calibrated, NUV flare spectra obtained over the
impulsive phase in M dwarf flares. We observed these flares with a fleet
of nine ground-based telescopes simultaneously, which provided broadband
photometry and low-resolution spectra at the Balmer jump. An increase in
the broadband continuum occurred with a signal-to-noise ratio >20 in
the HST spectra, while numerous Fe II lines and the Mg II lines also
increased but with smaller flux enhancements than the continuum
radiation. These two events produced the most prominent Balmer line
radiation and the largest Balmer jumps that have been observed to date
in dMe flare spectra. A T = 9000 K blackbody underestimates the NUV
continuum flare flux by a factor of two and is a poor approximation to
the white light in these types of flare events. Instead, our data
suggest that the peak of the specific continuum flux density is
constrained to U-band wavelengths near the Balmer series limit. A
radiative-hydrodynamic simulation of a very high energy deposition rate
averaged over times of impulsive heating and cooling better explains the
properties of the λ > 2500 Å flare continuum. These two
events sample only one end of the empirical color–color
distribution for dMe flares, and more time-resolved flare spectra in the
NUV, U band, and optical from 2000 to 4200 Å are needed during
more impulsive and/or more energetic flares.