An Ultra Fast Image Generator (UFig) for wide-field astronomy

Understand

Simulated wide-field images are becoming an important part of observational astronomy, either to prepare for new surveys or to test measurement methods.

• In order to efficiently explore vast parameter spaces, the computational speed of simulation codes is a central requirement to their implementation.
• We introduce the Ultra Fast Image Generator (UFig) which aims to bring wide-field imaging simulations to the current limits of computational capabilities.
• We achieve this goal through: (1) models of galaxies, stars and observational conditions, which, while simple, capture the key features necessary for realistic simulations, and (2) state-of-the-art computational and implementation optimizations.