This paper presents a methodological framework for expanding methanol ice surveys to face-on protoplanetary disks using JWST-MIRI. It includes target selection, spectral extraction, Bayesian fitting, and validation strategies to study ice chemistry.
Key findings
Methanol is a critical precursor to prebiotic chemistry and is predominantly formed through grain-surface chemistry.
Systematic surveys of methanol ice have been limited to edge-on disk geometries.
A new target selection methodology and spectral extraction technique are developed for face-on disks.
A multi-component Bayesian fitting framework is created to disentangle methanol features from silicate and water ice bands.
Predicted detection rates of 60-75% for methanol ice in warm disk layers.
Limitations & open questions
The method's effectiveness is yet to be validated against real observations.
The study focuses on 40 Class II protoplanetary disks, limiting the generalizability of the findings.