I am organizing a mini-workshop on applications of the spectral simulation code Cloudy to astronomical problems.  I am holding the next official workshop here in Lexington on May 20 - 24,  In this mini-workshop, I will go over the same material but at a far slower rate.  My goal is to improve the contents by doing the workshop at a leisurely pace.  All study materials will be provided but participants need to bring a laptop to compute Cloudy models and create plots of results.

Cloudy is a large-scale code that simulates the microphysics of matter exposed to ionizing radiation. It calculates the atomic physics, chemistry, radiation transport, and dynamics problems simultaneously and self-consistently, building from a foundation of individual atomic and molecular processes. The result is a first-principles prediction of the conditions in the material and its observed spectrum.

The workshop will cover observation, theory, and application of Cloudy to a wide variety of astronomical environments.  This includes the theory of diffuse matter and quantitative spectroscopy, the science of using spectra to make physical measurements. We will use Cloudy to simulate such objects as AGB stars, Active Galactic Nuclei, Starburst galaxies, and the intergalactic medium.

The sessions will consist of a mix of textbook study, using Osterbrock & Ferland, “Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei”, application of Cloudy to a variety of astrophysical problems, and projects organized by the participants. No prior experience with Cloudy is assumed although some knowledge of spectroscopy and the physics of the interstellar medium is useful.  PDF copies of relevant chapters in Osterbrock will be provided.

See the website below for more information:
http://cloud9.pa.uky.edu/~gary/cloudy/CloudySummerSchool/