Introducing thresholds to analyze time series of emission from the Sun
enables a new and simple definition of solar flare events, and their
interoccurrence times. Rescaling time by the rate of events, the waiting and
quiet time distributions both conform to scaling functions that are independent
of the intensity threshold over a wide range. The scaling functions are well
described by a two parameter function, with parameters that depend on the phase
of the solar cycle. For flares identified according to the current, standard
definition, similar behavior is found.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, revtex
