MCSED models the optical, near-infrared and infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) of galactic systems. Its modularity and options make it flexible and able to address the varying physical properties of galaxies over cosmic time and environment and adjust to changes in understanding of stellar evolution, the details of mass loss, and the products of binary evolution through substitution or addition of new datasets or algorithms. MCSED is built to fit a galaxy’s full SED, from the far-UV to the far-IR. Among other physical processes, it can model continuum emission from stars, continuum and line-emission from ionized gas, attenuation from dust, and mid- and far-IR emission from dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). MCSED performs its calculations by creating a complex stellar population (CSP) out of a linear combination of simple-stellar populations (SSPs) using an efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. It is very quick, and takes advantage of parallel processing.

The spectral classification code Diagnose assigns one of four classifications (star, galaxy, quasar, or unknown) to each source and returns a redshift estimate for the galaxies and quasars and a velocity estimate for the stars. The code uses a chi-squared minimization for linear combinations of principal component templates to determine a best-fit spectral classification and redshift estimate. It computes three best-fit chi-squared values: one for stellar type and velocity, one for galaxy type and redshift, and one for a quasar and redshift. Diagnose then compares the best fit of these three reduced chi-squared values to the second best fit and evaluates the difference against a statistical threshold.