Enabling Stellar Flare Science in the Roman Galactic Bulge Survey: Cadence, Filters, and the Read-Out Strategy Matter

TL;DR

This paper explores how the Roman Space Telescope's observational strategies, including cadence and filter choices, impact the detection and analysis of stellar flares in the Galactic Bulge, highlighting the importance of sub-exposure data for resolving short events.

Contribution

It demonstrates that analyzing sub-exposure data can significantly improve the characterization of stellar flares in Roman observations, advocating for public availability of such data.

Findings

Sub-exposure analysis enhances flare morphology constraints.

Roman's imaging can detect long-duration, energetic flares.

Sky location and observational strategy influence flare detection efficiency.

Abstract

As was discovered with other wide field, precise imagers, the stable photometry necessary for the microlensing surveys is well-suited to general stellar astrophysics, including stellar flares, which are important for understanding stellar magnetic activity and even the space weather environments of exoplanets. Large stellar flare surveys have never been performed before in the Roman spectral range, and Roman may reveal new information about flare emission mechanisms (blackbody, recombination continuum, chromospheric emission lines) and how flare rates change with stellar age and metallicity. For instance, the Galactic Bulge stars will be much older than the typical studied flare stars, and Roman's wide field and exquisite imaging may provide sufficient statistics to probe the flare behavior and properties of such an old stellar population. However, the information yield will likely depend on sky location, cadence, read-out strategy, and filter choices. Stellar flare timescales range from seconds to hours, so Roman may only be able to resolve the longest, most energetic events. However, because a single exposure in the Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey will consist of several non-destructive reads, short duration events can be modeled from the flux variations within a single exposure. Here we provide a proof of concept, showing that flare morphologies can be significantly better constrained if sub-exposure data are analyzed. As a result, we advocate that such data be made publicly available for Roman flare studies, with minimal on-board processing.