M-Dwarf Flare Candidates Simultaneously Observed by K2 and TESS

Abstract

We present results of a study on the identification of M-dwarf flares using K2 and TESS data. Our sample includes objects observed simultaneously by these two missions, so that we can also compare how flares are identified in the two sets of data. We implement two open-source Python packages, Lightkurve and PyVAN, to work in unison to easily access the data and determine variability in the light curves of 39 M-dwarfs. We identified 13 flare detections in the TESS data while K2 did not provide any reliable detections of flares. We describe the shortcomings of the K2 data that prevented these flares from being identified.