The flare activity of AD Leonis

Abstract

Time-resolved light curves of stellar flares on the M dwarf, AD Leo, have been obtained with high speed photometric techniques. Flare statistics for 1971-1980 show no cyclic variability of the flare frequency or the flare energy production, with the slope of the cumulative flare energy distribution remaining constant and the observed value of flare rise times and decay times each spanning two orders of magnitude. The randomly distributed occurrence of flares over time may result from the existence of several flare-producing regions on the star, but may also be due to a single region which gives the observer a nearly pole-on view. The roles of the physical parameters, temperature, electron density, flare area, magnetic field strength and atmospheric pressure scale height, are discussed with respect to flare time scales.