A Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by *Anne-Marie Broomhall (Warwick); James McLaughlin (Northumbria); Valery Nakariakov (Warwick); Aaron Reid (Queen’s Belfast)
Flares that are far more energetic than typical solar flares have been observed on solar-like stars, leading to predictions that the average occurrence rate of these so-called “superflares” on “stars with similar rotation periods to the Sun is about once in 500 to 600 years” (Maehara et al., 2015). However, given that these flares are far more energetic than typical solar flares, and that the data upon which these predictions are made consist of unresolved white light observations of the star in question’s brightness, it is reasonable to ask whether these predictions are justified. This specialist discussion meeting will focus on the synergies and differences between solar and stellar flares, from the impact of observational constraints to the presence of analogous features (e.g. flare shape and quasi-periodic pulsations) and from models that can account for the vastly differing energies observed in solar and stellar flares to explanations for recent observations of flares in massive A stars that do not have outer convection zones. We will also discuss the exciting series of solar flares observed from active region AR12763 in September 2017, which included the largest flare of Solar Cycle 24, and particularly encourage the community to consider the unique Swedish solar telescope observations of this event, obtained on behalf of the UK solar physics community. Talks and posters will be accepted.
If you wish to submit an extract please use this link:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/cfsa/people/broomhall/ras_flares/
Deadline for submissions Midnight 19 March
Admission to Specialist Discussion Meetings is free for RAS Fellows, £15 for non-fellows (£5 for students), cash or cheque only, collected at the registration desk. Admission to the subsequent Open (Monthly A&G) Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society is open to all, at no charge.