van Hoof, P. A. M. ; Porter, R. L. ; Ferland, G. J.

published in The Molecular Universe, 280, pp. 366 (2011)

Abstract: Cloudy is a widely used open-source modeling tool for photoionized and PDR/XDR environments. It was the first code that could produce a unified and fully self-consistent model of both the ionized region and the PDR surrounding a central source. Such an environment can e.g. be found in massive star forming regions, in planetary nebulae or around AGN. The code is also capable of producing "classical" PDR models that do not include an ionized region. The emphasis of the code is on detailed and state-of-the-art treatment of micro-physical processes. Cloudy is continually being updated to improve this treatment and to add more and newer atomic and molecular data. On this poster we will discuss some of these developments, including the addition of the LAMDA, CDMS and JPL molecular line databases. These will allow us to make NLTE predictions for the molecular line emission, but the accuracy of those predictions will be limited by the quality (or even absence) of collision strength data. We will discuss the impact this has on the accuracy of the predicted spectra in typical ISM conditions.

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