The new Continuum And Feature Extraction (CAFE) is a python version of the original CAFE IDL software –originally developed for fitting Spitzer/IRS spectra– that has been updated and optimized to work with JWST IFU data. CAFE is composed of two main tools: (1) the CAFE Region Extraction Tool Automaton (CRETA) and (2) the CAFE spectral fitting tool, or fitter. CRETA performs single-position and full-grid extractions from JWST IFU datasets; that is, from pipeline-processed cubes obtained with the NIRSpec IFU and MIRI MRS instruments. The CAFE fitter uses the spectra extracted by CRETA (or spectra provided by the user) and performs a spectral decomposition of the continuum emission (stellar and/or dust), as well as of a variety of common spectral features (in emission and absorption) present in the near- and mid-IR spectra of galaxies. The full dust treatment (size and composition) performed by CAFE (see Marshall et al. 2007) allows the dust continuum model components to fit not only spectra of typical star-forming galaxies, but also the spectra seen in more extreme, heavily dust-obscured starburst galaxies, such as luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs), active galactic nuclei (AGN), or very luminous quasars.
The current release of CAFE (v1.0.0) supports the CAFE spectral fitting tool. The CRETA extraction tool will be supported and more fully described in subsequent releases of the code.
Hosted by readthedocs: <https://goals-cafe.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>
If you use CAFE to fit your data, please reference it as Diaz-Santos et al. (2025) (see bibcode below) and add a link to the GitHub repository: https://github.com/GOALS-survey/CAFE
- Tanio Diaz-Santos
- Thomas Lai
- Luke Finnerty
- George Privon
- Paolo Bonfini
- Kirsten Larson
- Jason Marshall
- Lee Armus
- Vassilis Charmandaris
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