astro-synthesizer 1.0.2

Generate astronomical synthetic observations from the command-line

Generate synthetic observations from 3D numerical simulations

Synthesizer is a program to calculate synthetic images from either analytical models or hydrodynamical simulations (both grid and particle based). You can use Synthesizer via API and CLI. Command-line interaction offers a fast way to test your modelling setup, without the need to write any scripts. API interaction comes in handy during the production phase. Its modular form allows to easily script a full modelling pipeline by simply calling the relevant modules of Synthesizer. Pipelines templates are included within the examples/ source directory.

For the post-processing of particle based simulations, Synthesizer interpolates particle positions into a rectangular grid and then performs Monte-Carlo heating and raytracing, using the RADMC3D radiative transfer code. It can also optionally use the CASA software to generate a final synthetic observation of your model.

Polarization effects, either by scattering or grain alignment, can easily be added to your setup.

Additionally, Synthesizer includes the DustMixer module. This is a tool to easily generate dust opacity tables for a given dust composition, supporting full scattering matrices for polarization observations.
This module serves as a testing tool to experiment mixing different materials and different laboratory measurements of optical constants.

Installation

$ pip install astro-synthesizer

Run the code:

Synthesizer requires at least one of its five main options to run:

$ synthesizer
[synthesizer] Nothing to do. Main options: --grid, --opacity, --monte-carlo, --raytrace or --synobs
[synthesizer] Run synthesizer --help for details.

Example

Create a protoplanetary disk model, containing dust grains of DSHARP composition, let RADMC3D generate an image and then let CASA observe it (the order of command- line arguments is irrelevant).

$ synthesizer --grid --model ppdisk --temperature --raytrace --synobs 
  --opacity --material dsharp --show-grid-2d --show-opac --show-rt --show-synobs

Given the optional --show-* flags, synthesizer will plot the results of every step. You can also read in snapshots from an SPH simulation:

$ synthesizer --grid --sphfile snapshot_001.h5 --source gizmo  
 --show-grid-2d --show-grid-3d --raytrace --synobs 
 --opacity --show-rt --show-synobs

Already existing results can also be displayed without having to re-run a full step, using commands like

$ synthesizer --show-rt --show-synobs --show-opac --show-grid-2d --show-mc-3d

Example API implementations and modelling pipelines are distributed within the source code and can be found in the examples/ directory.

For details, run:

$ synthesizer --help

Note on 3D visualization

Synthesizer uses the Mayavi library for visualization and rendering of 3D data. Mayavi's current latest version presents issues on installation via pip and therefore breaks Synthesizer's installation. If you intend to use the --show-grid-3d or --show-mc-3d options, please install mayavi manually from the following source:

$ pip install https://github.com/enthought/mayavi/zipball/master

Compatibility with hydrodynamical codes

The coupling of hydrodynamical codes from different origins is now implemented in Synthesizer using the snapshot readers from the YT Python project. If your code is supported by YT, then it works with Synthesizer (beta).

Synthesizer does currently only work with Cartesian grids. Implementation of spherical grids is currently under development.

For particularly customized hydro readers, use the --source option (or source function argument in you call to the create_grid module).

If your code is not currently supported and you are interested in using this tool, feel free to get in touch.

Requisites:

Software:   python3, RADMC3D, CASA, Mayavi/ParaView (optional)

Feedback

If you find any bugs or have any feedback, please feel free to reach out at [e-mail].