Atomic Data in the nebular package
Richard A. Shaw wrote on Aug 25, 2008
A user recently posed some questions about the STSDAS.nebular package:
Dear Sir,
I am currently working on the planetary nebular density and temperature diagnostics for our reseach objects. And I am checking some IRAF nebular routines, e.g. ntplot, ntcontour in `stsdas/analysis/nebular/.' For some, e.g. [O II] density diagnostic calculation, I found there is a large dicordance between the nebular density information found by the above IRAF routine and that found by my own calculation.
So, I am trying to access the atomic data stored in IRAF routine for these ions, e.g. the IRAF subdirectories, of nebula/atomic_data. I see some fits files, but these files are in binary format and I cannot confirm the atmoc data values by myself.
1) Would you please give me a short guidance how to extract the atomic data from IRAF subdirectory?
2) In case when the data in the IRAF program is obsolete, how can I put the more recent atomic constants into the IRAF routine?
Although I have using the IRAF so long, I am familar with the recent program. My computer IRAF version is the 2004.
To which I replied:
You can find references to the atomic data that are used in this package in two ways. The first is to run the "at_data" task in the nebular package. This help file contains a rather lengthy table which lists literature codes for all the energy levels, transition rates, and collision cross sections used in the package, followed by the references to the literature. You may alternatively display the header of any of the data files for individual ions of interest by listing the table header parameters using the tprint task:
Look for the header keyword prefixes SOURCE and NOTE.
I should point out that the atomic data for some ions were updated recently. It my be worth your while to download IRAF v2.14 and STSDAS v3.8 to pick up the latest changes. If you find that there are better atomic data for some ions than are available 'nebular', please let me know so that I can update the package.</strong>
Dear Sir,
I am currently working on the planetary nebular density and temperature diagnostics for our reseach objects. And I am checking some IRAF nebular routines, e.g. ntplot, ntcontour in `stsdas/analysis/nebular/.' For some, e.g. [O II] density diagnostic calculation, I found there is a large dicordance between the nebular density information found by the above IRAF routine and that found by my own calculation.
So, I am trying to access the atomic data stored in IRAF routine for these ions, e.g. the IRAF subdirectories, of nebula/atomic_data. I see some fits files, but these files are in binary format and I cannot confirm the atmoc data values by myself.
1) Would you please give me a short guidance how to extract the atomic data from IRAF subdirectory?
2) In case when the data in the IRAF program is obsolete, how can I put the more recent atomic constants into the IRAF routine?
Although I have using the IRAF so long, I am familar with the recent program. My computer IRAF version is the 2004.
To which I replied:
You can find references to the atomic data that are used in this package in two ways. The first is to run the "at_data" task in the nebular package. This help file contains a rather lengthy table which lists literature codes for all the energy levels, transition rates, and collision cross sections used in the package, followed by the references to the literature. You may alternatively display the header of any of the data files for individual ions of interest by listing the table header parameters using the tprint task:
cl> tprint o_ii_atom.fits prp+ prd-Look for the header keyword prefixes SOURCE and NOTE.
I should point out that the atomic data for some ions were updated recently. It my be worth your while to download IRAF v2.14 and STSDAS v3.8 to pick up the latest changes. If you find that there are better atomic data for some ions than are available 'nebular', please let me know so that I can update the package.</strong>
Last post on Aug 25, 2008