TauREx 3: A Fast, Dynamic, and Extendable Framework for Retrievals

Abstract

Abstract TauREx 3 is the next generation of the TauREx exoplanet atmospheric retrieval framework for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is a complete rewrite with a full Python stack that makes it easy-to-use, high-performance, dynamic, and flexible. The new main TauREx program is built with modularity in mind, allowing the user to augment its functionalities with custom code and efficiently perform retrievals on custom parameters. We achieve this result by dynamic determination of fitting parameters, whereby TauREx 3 can detect new parameters for retrieval from user code through a simple interface. TauREx 3 can act as a library with a simple import taurex command, providing a rich set of classes and functions related to atmospheric modeling. A 10× speedup in forward model computations is achieved as compared to the previous version with a sixfold reduction in retrieval times while maintaining robust results. TauREx 3 is intended as a standalone, all-in-one package for retrievals while the TauREx 3 Python library can build or augment a user’s custom data pipeline easily.