Stellar magnetic field manifestations: flares

Understanding stellar magnetic fields is crucial to understanding the structure and evolution of stars. Stellar magnetic fields manifest in many different ways, on many different time scales. In this talk discuss one manifestations of magnetic fields on cool stars: stellar flares.  Flares result from magnetic reconnection processes in the stellar magnetic field that provide temporary increases in the stellar radiative output. Here I present a multiwavelength study of short duration flares using data from the GALEX (near-ultraviolet) and Kepler (optical) space telescopes. This study highlights the need for more physically grounded approximations for flare energy fractionation and presents evidence that energy fractionation is not constant across all types of flares.