Generate Cross Sections¶

The generate_cross_sections.py python script can be used to generate the cross sections files needed for a given UV spectrum, which includes the averaged cross sections and photoheating rates given the shape of the UV spectrum (see the cross_sections section for details of what is included in these files). The chimes-data repository already contains cross sections files for several commonly used UV spectra, but if you want to use your own spectrum you will need to create a cross sections file from the spectrum using generate_cross_sections.py.

To run this script, you will need to pass it a text file containing the various parameters, as discussed in the Parameters section below. The script can then be run on a single CPU as follows:

python generate_cross_sections.py parameter_file

It can also be run on multiple CPUs using MPI. For example, to run it on 4 CPUs you can use the following:

mpirun -np 4 python generate_cross_sections.py parameter_file