The NASA Ames Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Infrared Spectroscopic Database: The Computed Spectra

Authors

C. W. Bauschlicher, NASA Ames Research Center
C. Boersma, NASA Ames Research Center
A. Ricca, NASA Ames Research Center
A. L. Mattioda, NASA Ames Research Center
Jan Cami, The University of Western Ontario
E. Peeters, The University of Western Ontario
F. Sánchez de Armas, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA
G. Puerta Saborido, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA
D. M. Hudgins, NASA Headquarters
L. J. Allamandola, NASA Ames Research Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2010

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

Volume

189

Issue

2

First Page

341

Last Page

351

URL with Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/189/2/341

Abstract

The astronomical emission features, formerly known as the unidentified infrared bands, are now commonly ascribed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The laboratory experiments and computational modeling done at the NASA Ames Research Center to create a collection of PAH IR spectra relevant to test and refine the PAH hypothesis have been assembled into a spectroscopic database. This database now contains over 800 PAH spectra spanning 2-2000 μm (5000-5 cm–1). These data are now available on the World Wide Web at www.astrochem.org/pahdb. This paper presents an overview of the computational spectra in the database and the tools developed to analyze and interpret astronomical spectra using the database. A description of the online and offline user tools available on the Web site is also presented.