p-winds: Documentation

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Python implementation of Parker wind models for planetary atmospheres. p-winds produces simplified, 1-D models of the upper atmosphere of a planet, and perform radiative transfer to calculate observable spectral signatures.

The scalable implementation of 1D isothermal models allows for atmospheric retrievals to calculate atmospheric escape rates and temperatures. In addition, the modular implementation allows for a smooth plugging-in of more complex descriptions to forward model their corresponding spectral signatures (e.g., self-consistent or 3D models).

As of version 2.0, p-winds also includes a Python wrapper for the self-consistent, hydrodynamic escape simulation code ATES, originally developed by Andrea Caldiroli. See instructions on how to use it below and in the API documentation of the fluid module.

Scientific background

The isothermal models of p-winds are largely based on the theoretical framework of Oklopčić & Hirata (2018) and Lampón et al. (2020), which themselves based their work on the stellar wind model of Parker (1958). A description about the implementation of tidal effects is discussed in Vissapragada et al. (2022).

A description of p-winds and its usage for research-grade astronomical applications was published in Dos Santos et al. (2022). If you use this code in your research, please consider citing it. If you use the ATES interface within the fluid module, please consider citing Caldiroli et al. (2021).

In the current version, the code solves the stead-state ionization distribution of hydrogen and helium around the planet based on its physical parameters and the high-energy irradiation arriving at the planet. It also calculates the wavelength-dependent transit depths in the metastable helium triplet at 1.083 microns, and some metal lines in the UV (such as O I and C II). More species will be implemented in the future.

p-winds contains and distributes data products from the MUSCLES and Mega-MUSCLES treasury surveys. If you use the tools.generate_muscles_spectrum() or tools.standard_spectrum() functions in your study, we highly encourage you to cite France et al. (2016), Youngblood et al. (2016), Loyd et al. (2016), Wilson et al. (2021) and Behr et al. (2023).

Warning

As of version 1.4.5, p-winds does not include the MUSCLES data anymore to make the package leaner. You will need to download this data separately and set an environment variable containing the path to the data. Follow the installation guide.

If you want to use the code without installing it locally, you can always run it on the cloud (see this Google Colaboratory quickstart notebook). Otherwise, check out the Installation guide.

You can contribute to the project using GitHub.