THREE-DIMENSIONAL EXTINCTION MAPPING USING GAUSSIAN RANDOM FIELDS

Disentangling the 3D structure of interstellar extinction is a key requirement for understanding the Galaxy and a crucial step towards taking full advantage of the data Gaia will provide. We present a scheme for using stellar catalogues to map the three-dimensional distributions of extinction and dust within our Galaxy, employing Gaussian random fields and a simple physical model of the interstellar medium that assumes a Kolmogorov-like power spectrum of turbulent fluctuations. As extinction is modelled as a random field, the spatial resolution of the resulting maps is set naturally by the data available; there is no need to impose any spatial binning.