Bug#827841: ITP: mocassin -- Monte Carlo simulations of ionised nebulae

[Roger Wesson <rw@nebulousresearch.org>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Roger Wesson <rw@nebulousresearch.org>

* Package name    : mocassin
  Version         : 2.02.70
  Upstream Author : Barbara Ercolano
* URL             : http://www.3d-mocassin.net
* License         : GPL-2+
  Programming Lang: fortran
  Description     : Monte Carlo simulations of ionised nebulae

MOCASSIN is a fully 3D or 2D photoionisation and dust radiative transfer code which employs a Monte Carlo approach to the transfer of radiation through media of arbitrary geometry and density distribution. It was originally developed for the modelling of photoionised regions like HII regions and planetary nebulae and has since expanded and been applied to a variety of astrophysical problems, including modelling clumpy dusty supernova envelopes, star forming galaxies, protoplanetary disks and inner shell fluorence emission in the photospheres of stars and disk atmospheres. The code can deal with arbitrary Cartesian grids of variable resolution, it has successfully been used to model complex density fields from SPH calculations and can deal with ionising radiation extending from Lyman edge to the X-ray. The dust and gas microphysics is fully coupled both in the radiation transfer and in the thermal balance.

Mocassin is a widely used code, with papers describing it having nearly 200 citations in the astronomical literature.  The source code is available from 3d-mocassin.net and is licensed under GPL-v2+.  I propose to create a debian package which can be maintained within the Debian Astronomy Team.