ProDiMo - Disk Models for GASPS
First Author:
Peter Woitke
Email: ptw AT roe.ac.uk
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Blackford Hill, Royal Observatory
Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
Coauthors:
Kamp, Inga, Kapteyn Astronomidcal Institute, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
Thi, Wing-Fai, Institute for Astronomy, Blackford Hill, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
Hogerheijde, Michiel, Leiden Observatory, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Abstract
With the launch of the HERSCHEL observatory we will be able to study far IR gas emission lines from protoplanetary disks, which allows us to determine directly the gas mass and discuss the stucture and evolution of the gas phase independent of the dust. In our GASPS open time key programme, we will observe fine structure lines of CII and OI, as well as rotational lines of CO and H2O that probe the surface, the body and the midplane regions of the disks, respectively. For a qualified interpretation of these observational data, we need accurate models. In this contribution, I will present new models ("ProDiMo"), based on the work of Inga Kamp, that consistently solve the kinetic chemical equilibrium in the gas phase, the balance of non-LTE heating and cooling rates, the 2D dust continuum radiative transfer and the vertical hydrostatic disk stratification. Current results suggest that the gas is quite hot at the surface (>1000K at 1AU) and, thus, the disks are vertically much more extended than previously expected. These warm puffed-up surface layers are important to understand and non-LTE line transfer and to interpret the observational line data.
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