Introduction

SPECT3D is a multi-dimensional imaging and spectral analysis code designed to simulate the radiative and atomic properties of plasmas. It is generally used to post-process the results of radiation-hydrodynamics simulations or particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to generate simulated images and spectra that can be directly compared with experimental measurements.

SPECT3D computes spectral properties (emission and absorption) and ionization properties for LTE and non-LTE plasmas. Plasma distributions for a wide variety of geometries are supported.

Radiative intensities and fluxes are computed at a virtual detector located at a user-specified position in 3-D space. Instrumental effects (e.g., spectral broadening or time-integration) can be included in simulated images and spectra to facilitate comparisons with experimental measurements.

In designing SPECT3D, a strong emphasis has been placed on making it easy to use. It features a user-friendly graphical interface for setting up problems and monitoring the progress of the simulation. The SPECT3D package also includes SPECT3D Visualizer, which is used to display results from SPECT3D simulations and include instrumental response effects.

SPECT3D has been designed to run on multiple platforms, and is currently supported on Windows PC, Linux, and Mac OSX platforms.

To get started, please refer to:

• Major features of SPECT3D
• Conventions and units
• Overview of setting up a simulation
• Sample problems
• Supported platforms
• Reporting bugs
• Known issues
• User comments and suggestions

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