A modelling tool for dust emission and extinction

DustEM is a numerical tool that computes the extinction, the emission, and the polarisation of interstellar dust grains heated by photons. It is written in fortran 95 and is jointly developed by Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) and Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP). The dust emission is calculated in the optically thin limit (no radiative transfer) and the default spectral range is 0.04 and 105 μm. The code has been designed so that dust properties can easily be changed and mixed and to allow for the inclusion of new grain physics. Data for DustEM is generated by the IDL code DustProp which features methods to compute dust optical properties (e.g., Mie, T-matrix, DDA) and heat capacities (internal use only). A description and illustration of DustEM can be found in Compiègne et al. (2011). The DustEM Wrapper IDL tool uses DustEM to compute fluxes in a wide range of instrumental bands and to fit dust parameters. DustEM is coupled to the Meudon PDR code where it handles dust physics. DustEM is also coupled to the continuum radiative transfer codes CRT of the University of Helsinki as described and SKIRT of the University of Ghent.

Related links

  • DustEM Wrapper
  • The DustEM Wrapper is an IDL (Interactive Data Language) interface, allowing to run DustEM to fit data using a χ2 minimisation. The package includes transmission filters for several instruments, and a user guide.

  • ISM Services
  • The ISM Platform gathers numerical services to prepare and interpret observations of the interstellar medium and of astrophysical jets. It provides access to several state-of-the-art numerical codes, databases of pre-computed numerical simulations and tools to analyze the results.

  • CRT
  • CRT is a 3D Monte Carlo program for the calculation of radiation scattered and/or emitted by dust grains in interstellar clouds (Juvela & Padoan 2003, Juvela 2005).

  • SKIRT
  • SKIRT is a software code for simulating continuum radiation transfer in dusty astrophysical systems, such as galaxies and accretion disks. SKIRT employs the Monte Carlo technique to emulate the relevant physical processes including scattering, absorption and emission by the dust.

  • THEMIS
  • The interstellar dust modelling framework THEMIS (The Heterogeneous dust Evolution Model for Interstellar Solids) takes a global view of dust and its evolution in response to the local conditions in interstellar media.

  • Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS)
  • Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP)