ChromaStarPy: A stellar atmosphere and spectrum modeling and visualization lab in python

TL;DR

ChromaStarPy is a Python-based stellar atmosphere and spectrum modeling tool that allows students and researchers to simulate, visualize, and compare stellar spectra interactively within an integrated development environment.

Contribution

It is a Python port of an existing Java-based stellar modeling code, incorporating visualization and data analysis features for educational and research use.

Findings

Enables interactive spectrum modeling and visualization in Python.

Allows direct comparison of modeled and observed spectra.

Includes improvements over previous Java-based codes.

Abstract

We announce ChromaStarPy, an integrated general stellar atmospheric modeling and spectrum synthesis code written entirely in python V. 3. ChromaStarPy is a direct port of the ChromaStarServer (CSServ) Java modeling code described in earlier papers in this series, and many of the associated JavaScript (JS) post-processing procedures have been ported and incorporated into CSPy so that students have access to ready-made "data products". A python integrated development environment (IDE) allows a student in a more advanced course to experiment with the code and to graphically visualize intermediate and final results, ad hoc, as they are running it. CSPy allows students and researchers to compare modeled to observed spectra in the same IDE in which they are processing observational data, while having complete control over the stellar parameters affecting the synthetic spectra. We also take the opportunity to describe improvements that have been made to the related codes, ChromaStar (CS), CSServ and ChromaStarDB (CSDB) that, where relevant, have also been incorporated into CSPy. The application may be found at the home page of the OpenStars project: http://www.ap.smu.ca/~ishort/OpenStars/ .