Stellar variability is a limiting factor for planet detection and characterization, particularly around active stars. By understanding the light curve profile of flares on active M-dwarfs we can help improve exoplanet detection and characterization. Here we revisit one of the most active stars from the Kepler mission, the M4 dwarf GJ 1243, and use a sample of 303 stellar flares from 11 months of 1-minute cadence light curves to study the empirical morphology of stellar flares. We use a Gaussian process detrending technique to account for the underlying starspots. We present an improved analytic, continuous flare template that is generated by stacking the flares in a scaled time and amplitude and using Markov Chain Monte Carlo to fit the model. Our model is defined using classical flare events, but can also be used to model complex, multi-peaked flare events. We test our model using TESS data at both the 2-minute and 20-second cadence modes, showing the general utility of our empirical flare template.

{"references": ["Davenport, James R.A (2014) arXiv:1411.3723v1", "Hawley, Suzanne L. (2014) arXiv:1410.7779v1", "Jackman, James A. G. (2018) arXiv:1804.03377v1", "Foreman-Mackey, Daniel (2018) arxiv:1801.10156"]}