Quickstart Guide

This guide will help you get started with IceModels quickly.

Basic Usage

IceModels provides tools for working with ice spectroscopy data and models. The main functionality includes loading ice data, calculating absorption spectra, and analyzing spectral features.

Loading Ice Data

To load ice optical constants:

import icemodels

# Load CO2 ice data
co2_data = icemodels.load_molecule('co2')

# Load temperature-dependent CO data
co_data = icemodels.load_molecule_ocdb('co', temperature=10)

Computing Absorption Spectra

Calculate absorption spectra for ice layers:

import astropy.units as u

# Define ice parameters
column = 1e17 * u.cm**-2

# Calculate spectrum
spectrum = icemodels.absorbed_spectrum(
    ice_column=column,
    ice_model_table=co2_data,
    molecular_weight=44*u.Da
)

Simple Gaussian models

There is some provision for simple Gaussian models. These are inaccurate and just hacked together; I don’t recommend using them.

# Define Gaussian parameters
center = 4.27 * u.um  # CO2 stretch mode
width = 0.1 * u.um
bandstrength = 1e-16 * u.cm/u.molecule

# Calculate spectrum with Gaussian components
spectrum_gauss = icemodels.absorbed_spectrum_Gaussians(
    ice_column=column,
    center=center,
    width=width,
    ice_bandstrength=bandstrength
)

These examples demonstrate the basic functionality of IceModels. For more detailed examples and advanced usage, see the Tutorial and Examples sections.