Solar Flare Occurrence Rate and Waiting Time Statistics

We use Renewal Theory for the estimation and interpretation of the flare rate from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) soft X-ray flare catalogue. It is found that, in addition to the flare rate variability with the solar cycles, a much faster variation occurs. The fast variation on time scales of days and hours down to minute scale appears to be comparable with time intervals between two successive flares (waiting times). The detected fast non-stationarity of the flaring rate is discussed in the framework of the previously published stochastic models of the waiting time dynamics.