CHIANTI

An Atomic Database for Spectroscopic Diagnostics of Astrophysical Plasmas.

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Naval Research Laboratory (USA) - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK)
University of Cambridge (UK) - George Mason University (USA) - Universita' degli Studi di Firenze (Italy)

History of the CHIANTI Versions

Here we provide a short description of the HISTORY of the various versions of the database and main software updates.



Software HISTORY : here we provide the detailed history of all the changes to the software.

Database and software History

October 2009 - CHIANTI v. 6.0.1 released!

We found an error in the continuum routines: the routines assumed that in the DEM input the temperatures were specified at intervals of logT=0.1. An arbitrary interval is now allowed. With the previous versions of the continuum routines, if the user specified the CHIANTI.IONEQ ion balance the result would be a continuum that is a factor two too high since the DEM would be tabulated at 0.05 dex intervals whereas the continuum routines would be expecting 0.10 intervals.
Version 6.0.1 corrects this error. The error only affected calculations done using the CHIANTI.IONEQ ion balance, and it did not affect calculations done with earlier versions of the database.
The routines should now yield the same continuum as calculated in version 5.2 and earlier. CHIANTI 6 saw the first release of an ion balance file (chianti.ioneq) for which the temperature spacing was 0.05 dex (in log T) rather than the usual 0.10. A temperature spacing of 0.10 had been hardcoded in the continuum routines, and so the derived continuum when using the chianti.ioneq file became a factor 2 larger than it should have been. (Note that the 0.10 spacing was not hardcoded for emission line calculations and so these are unaffected.) This bug has been fixed, and the changes will be transparent if you use ch_ss, ch_synthetic and make_chianti_spec for generating synthetic spectra.
If you directly call the CHIANTI continuum routines (freefree, freebound, two_photon) please note that a new keyword has been introduced called EM_INT. If you are modelling an isothermal plasma, you should use EM_INT to specify the emission measure value. If you are modelling a plasma with a differential emission measure curve you should specify the DEM values through the keyword DEM_INT. Previously the user would have to specify emission measures by manually converting them to DEM values and then inputting them via DEM_INT.
An error was also corrected in the calculation of the correction factor to include ionization and recombination effects into level populations. Such error only affected results at very low densities, when collisional excitation becomes very small.
A few minor typos were also corrected in cr_7.wgfa, mn_8.wgfa, fe_18.cilvl and fe_18.reclvl files.

July 2009 - CHIANTI v 6.0 released

CHIANTI 6 includes a complete database of ionization and recombination coefficients for the first 30 elements of the periodic table, as well as IDL programs to read them. Other improvements concern He-like line emission, ionization equilibrium, and new or revised data for ions emitting between 1 and 2000 Angstrom. Major features are:

March 2006 - CHIANTI v 5.2 released

A few transitions were mistakenly left out of the fe_17.splups file, that caused the emissivities of a few lines to be incorrectly calculated at densities larger than 10^12 cm^-3. These transitions have now been inserted in the fe_17.splups file. One excitation in O IV was also left out. This affected the line at 62.58 nm, used for density diagnostic.

The following main IDL routines in the CHIANTI software have also been modified:

continuum routines
All the continuum routines have been modified to add a /kev keyword. Also the routine make_chianti_spec has been modified accordingly.

integral_calc
This routine gave inaccurate results when used with the mazzotta_etal_9 and shull_steenberg ion balance files. This has now been corrected.

correct_pops
The sum of level populations were not being re-normalized back to 1, so this has been corrected. Only affects Fe XVII-XXIV for densities > 10^13 cm-3.

To know about other minor changes please see the HISTORY file and the program headers.

September 2005 - CHIANTI v 5.1 released

An error in the calculation of Fe dielectronic satellite lines 1.7-2.0 Angstroms range has been corrected.
We have also corrected a few bugs present in the v5.0 of the software, most notably affecting isothermal calculations (correction to ch_synthetic.pro) and the two-photon continuum (correction to two_photon.pro). A minor bug in make_chianti_spec.pro was also corrected. Finally, the keyword /ALL has been added to isothermal calculations.

August 2005 - CHIANTI v 5 released!

We would like to announce the release of the version 5.0 of the CHIANTI database for astrophysical spectroscopy. With Version 5, CHIANTI includes ionization and recombination as mechanisms for populating excited levels, photoexcitation from any user-defined radiation field, software for taking into account non-Maxwellian velocity distributions, and new data for a large number of ions (both for new entries or for ions already in the database). Changes in the data consist of the inclusion of high-energy configurations of Fe XVII to XXIII to predict a large number of lines in the X-rays, n=3 configurations in the N-like and O-like sequences to predict a large number of lines at UV wavelengths, and new data for very important ions in the EUV wavelength range such as Fe IX, Fe XII and Fe XV. The software has been speeded considerably and a few more user-friendly features have been added.

Atomic Data Updates

The updates contained in Version 5.0 of CHIANTI involve ions emitting at all wavelength ranges. Updates by iso-electronic sequence are as follows:

Hydrogen sequence
He II, Ne X, Na XI, Mg XII, P XV, Cl XVII, K XIX

Helium sequence
He I, C V, N VI, O VII, Ne IX, Na X, Mg XI, Al XII, Si XIII, P XIV, S XV, Cl XVI, Ar XVII, K XVIII, Ca XIX, Fe XXV

Lithium sequence
Fe XXIV

Beryllium sequence
C III, O V, Ar XV, Fe XXIII

Boron sequence
C II, N III, O IV, Ne VI, S XII, Ar XIV, Fe XXII

Carbon sequence
O III, Ne V, S XI, Cl XII, Fe XXI

Nitrogen sequence
Mg VI, S X, Cl XI, Ar XII, Ca XIV, Fe XX I, Zn XXIV

Oxygen sequence
Ne III, Mg V, Al VI, Si VII, P VIII, S IX, Cl X, Al XI, K XII, Ca XIII, Ti XV, Cr XVII, Mn XVIII, Fe XIX, Co XX, Ni XXI, Zn XXIII

Fluorine sequence
Fe XVIII

Neon sequence
Ar IX, Fe XVII

Magnesium sequence
Al II, Fe XV

Aluminum sequence
S IV, Ca VIII

Silicon sequence
Ca VII, Fe XIII

Phosphorus sequence
K V, Fe XII

Sulphur sequence
Cl II

Argon sequence
Fe IX

Potassium sequence
Fe VIII

Calcium sequence
Fe VII

CHIANTI IDL Procedures Updates

Software
Routines speeded up considerably
New software for photoexcitation from user-defined radiation fields
New software for non-Maxwellian velocity distributions

Version 4.2 of the software (3-Dec-2003)

A major error in the calculation of the dielectronic lines in the X-ray wavelength range has been corrected. This error was introduced in v4.0 and was not present prior to that release.
We have also corrected a few minor bugs, and added many improvements, mostly for Windows-compatibility.
Finally, we have modified the way the low-level routine POP_SOLVER is internally handled by the software.

Routines corrected/modified: 

isothermal.pro
ch_line_list.pro
ch_ss.pro 
ch_synthetic.pro
density_ratios.pro
gofnt.pro
plot_populations.pro 
temperature_ratios.pro
two_photon.pro
extra/emiss_calc.pro
extra/ratio_plotter.pro
extra/show_pops.pro 
other/DEM/get_contributions.pro
low_level/bb_rad_loss.pro 
low_level/ch_get_file.pro
low_level/ch_xmenu_sel.pro 
low_level/pop_solver.pro
low_level/read_wgfa2.pro
low_level/setup_ion.pro
low_level/continuum/sutherland.pro

Please read the Software HISTORY file or the routine headers for details.

Version 4.2 of the database (3-Dec-2003)

Version 4.2 corrects a few minor errors/ adds a few missing data in the following files: 
O II      : o_2.splups
N VI      : n_6.splups 
C V       : c_5.splups
S II      : s_2.wgfa
Si II     : si_2.wgfa 
Ne III    : ne_3.splups
Al XII    : al_12.wgfa
Fe XIX    : fe_19.wgfa, fe_19.splups
Fe XXIIId : fe_23d.elvlc, fe_23d.wgfa
Version 4.2 also improves the wavelengths and energy level values for the following ions: 
Ca XVIIId : ca_18d.wgfa
Fe XX     : fe_20.wgfa, fe_20.elvlc
Fe XXIId  : fe_22d.wgfa
Fe XXIVd  : fe_24d.wgfa
Fe XXIV   : fe_24.elvlc, fe_24.wgfa
Fe XXVd   : fe_25d.wgfa
Adds new data for two innershell transitions for 
Fe XXIII
calculated using the Flexible Atomic Code developed by Dr. Ming-Feng Gu.

Finally, collisional data for some missing transitions from metastable levels were inserted for the following ions: 

 Ar IV, Fe VIII, N I, Ne VII, Ni XIII and Ni XVI.
The addition of these collisional data affects the level population of the ion, hence also the line intensities.

Please read the documentation in the files for more details.

Version 4.1 of the software (8-Aug-2003)

We have corrected a few minor bugs and added a few improvements. See the HISTORY file for details.

Version 4.02 of the database (6-Feb-2003)

Since the release of CHIANTI 4.0 we have discovered errors in the ionization equilibrium (.ioneq) files concerning only some ions. Some errors were due to a corrupted file, others were in the original papers (e.g. Ca I and Fe I in Arnaud and Rothenflug (1985).
The following files have been modified:
- mazzotta_etal.ioneq, mazzotta_etal_ext.ioneq: Ar XII to Ar XIX, Co XV to XXIV, Zn XXXI

- arnaud_rothenflug.ioneq, arnaud_rothenflug_ext.ioneq: Fe I,Ca I,Ar I,Zn XXXI

- arnaud_raymond.ioneq, arnaud_raymond_ext.ioneq: Fe VII, Cl X,Ca I,Ar I,Zn XXXI

- shull_steenberg.ioneq, shull_steenberg_ext.ioneq: All Fe ions + minor ions of the following elements: S,Li,Be,B,F,P,Cl,K,Sc,Ti,V,Cr,Mn,Co,Cu,Zn


Version 4.01 of the database (2-Dec-2002)

We have corrected two errors in two files of the CHIANTI database:
1 - the "itoh.dat" file was corrupted.
2 - the file "si_9.splups" was missing the 3-4 transition
The itoh.dat file is used in the calculation of the bremsstrahlung continuum radiation. The missing 3-4 transition in Si IX affected significantly the emissivities of only a few lines in the visible and of the 258.08 A and 227.36 A lines in the EUV.


Version 4.0 of the database/software (July 2002)

With version 4.0, CHIANTI has become an integrated package including atomic database, software and documentation. We still have two distributions, one via SolarSoft, and one stand-alone, but we have modified the stand-alone one to be an exact copy of the SolarSoft one. The only difference being the inclusion of of general SolarSoft ($SSW/gen) now required by the routines. We have completely rewritten the entire software and made it compatible with Windows NT and VMS. The new software is compatible with the previous versions of the database.

The main features of the new package are described in P.R. Young, G. Del Zanna, E. Landi, K.P. Dere, H.E. Mason and M. Landini, 2002, ApJ, in press. CHIANTI version 4.0 includes proton excitation rates for most of the ions in the database, and has a black-body treatment of photoexcitation and stimulated emission.

A new feature of the CHIANTI database is the use of 9-point spline fitting to obtain the scaled electron and proton effective collision strengths. This makes the new database not-compatible with the previous software.

Two-photon continuum radiation has been included, as well as a new relativistic free-free continuum.

New ions have been inserted, expecially the first neutral species (H I, He I, N I), and data for many ions have been renewed.

Updates by iso-electronic sequence are as follows:

Hydrogen
H I
Helium
He I
Lithium
C IV, O VI
Beryllium
O V, Al X, Si XI, S XIII, Ar XV, Ca XVII, Fe XXIII
Boron
Al IX, Si X, S XII, Ar XIV, Ca XVI, Fe XXII
Carbon
Ne V, Fe XXI
Nitrogen
N I, O II, Mg VI, Al VII, Si VIII, P IX, S X, Ar XII, K XIII, Ca XIV, Ti XVI, Cr XVIII, Mn XIX, Fe XX, Co XXI, Ni XXII, Zn XXIV
Oxygen
Ne III, S IX, Fe XIX, Ni XXI
Fluorine
Fe XVIII
Magnesium
Fe XV
Phosphorus
S II, Ar IV, Fe XII
Scandium
Fe VI

CHIANTI Updates (Dec 20, 2001)
Version 3.03 of the database and Version 3.03 of the software.

It has recently been pointed out that the CHIANTI (x+y+z)/w intensity ratio of O VII and Si XIII in the X-ray wavelength range were in disagreement with observations. Disagreements for O VII were moderate, those for Si XIII were significant. We have discovered a small mistake in the transition energies of transitions 1-5 and 1-6 in the o_7.splups and si_13.splups files which was the cause of these disagreements. For this reason, the o_7.splups and si_13.splups files have been corrected (CHIANTI version 3.03 of the database). We have also corrected a minor error in the 'freefree.pro' routine for the calculation of the free free continuum. (CHIANTI version 3.03 of the software).

CHIANTI IDL Software Updates (November 19, 2001)
CHIANTI v. 3.02 of the software made available.

We have discovered an error in the calculation of the free-free continuum in the CHIANTI software package ('freefree.pro'). The error was associated with the mislabeling of the original data file for the gaunt factor. The effects of this error are significant only at high temperatures, where the freefree contribution is most important. The relevant procedures have been corrected and are distributed through the CHIANTI web sites and the SolarSoft package. Some minor modifications to other IDL procedures are also included, and

logged in the HISTORY file

Apr 30 2001 - CHIANTI v. 3.02 of the database made available

It has recently been pointed out that the intensities of a few O V lines predicted by the CHIANTI database are in disagreement with SOHO/SUMER observations on the Sun. The collision rates in the current (3.01) version of CHIANTI are from distorted wave calculations from Zhang & Sampson 1992. However, their rates for O V do not appear to agree well with the other members of the iso-electronic sequence. It has been found that collisional transition proabilities from Berrington et al. (1985) provide a better reproduction of the observations. For this reason, the o_5.splups in the latest version of the CHIANTI database (version 3.01) has been replaced with the Berrington et al. (1985) data. The tar files on our web sites have been updated, as Version 3.02. The only change from version 3.01 is the revised O V collisional data. Also the files in the SolarSoft package have been updated with the new data. Some tests have shown that changes in the emissivities of the O V lines in the EUV spectral range between 600 A and 800 A are moderate (within 10%), while the effects on the 1218/1371 line ratio are greater. Electron densities measured using the 1218/1371 line ratio are now much more in agreement with estimates from ratios of other ions.

28 November 2000 - new CHIANTI package within SolarSoft made available

We have reorganised and updated the whole CHIANTI package under SolarSoft: 
$SSW/packages/chianti/
Now: 
$SSW/packages/chianti/dbase/  contains the lite  version 3.01 of the CHIANTI database
$SSW/packages/chianti/doc/    contains various documentation including
                              new software notes

In particular,

$SSW/packages/chianti/doc/chianti_guide_1.0.ps

replaces the previous CDS software notes #33,37,50 (now obsolete). 


$SSW/packages/chianti/idl/   contains all the CHIANTI routines.

In particular, it contains the routines that  before could only be found in 
$SSW/soho/cds/idl/sci/data_anal/spec_syn

Also,

$SSW/packages/chianti/idl/extra/  contains some extra routines that Peter Young 
            contributed. These routines are described in the 
$SSW/packages/chianti/doc/cds_swnote_52.ps  document.

28 November 2000 - CHIANTI v. 3.01 of the procedures made available

We have updated some of the CHIANTI IDL routines. The main changes affect the way the continuum was calculated. Also, some minor bugs have been fixed. We have also reorganised the routines into subdirectories, so you will need to add to your IDL_STARTUP file (if not there already): 
 !PATH = '+/data/chianti_pro_v3.01:'+!PATH
 !PATH = EXPAND_PATH(!PATH)
The modified routines are: temperature_ratios, gofnt, setup_ion, conf2n, freebound,freefree,synthetic,synthetic_plot, density_ratios, read_ioneq, latex_wvl_dem, ascii_wvl_dem.

28 September 2000 - CHIANTI v. 3.01 made available

Since our announcement of the release of Version 3.0 of the CHIANTI database we have determined that there are errors in few of the files in that release. The errors include incorrect collisonal data for the He II 304 line and two-photon transitions that appear as spectral lines in some of the helium sequence ions. These files have been corrected and a new version, Version 3.01, is now available. If you have downloaded Version 3.0, we highly recommend that you replace it with Version 3.01. We regret any inconvenience this has caused you.

1 September 2000 - release of the new CHIANTI v. 3.0

We would like to announce the release of Version 3.0 of the CHIANTI database for astrophysical spectroscopy. This release extends CHIANTI into the X-ray wavelength region between 1 and 50 Angstroms. This has largely been accomplished by including the necessary atomic data for the hydrogen- and helium-like isoelectronic sequences and their satellites. In addition, the atomic data for a number of other ions have also been updated and revised. In order to include the satellite lines, it has been necessary to modify the IDL procedures that calculate spectral lines intensities. Consequently, it is necessary to download both the new data files and the new set of IDL procedures. The additions to the database are described in a paper `CHIANTI - an atomic database for emission lines, IV - Extension to X-ray Wavelengths' by K.P. Dere, E. Landi, P.R. Young, and G. Del Zanna, and has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.



Atomic Data Updates

The updates contained in Version 3.0 of CHIANTI are primarily concerned with extending its coverage to include the 1 - 50 Å wavelength region. The inclusion of emission lines from the hydrogen and helium isoelectronic sequences and their satellite line and improved models of highly ionized iron (Fe) ions are the principal ingredients for achieving this. Below, we list the newly included ions and the ions which have been modified for improved X-ray coverage.

Updates by iso-electronic sequence are as follows:

Hydrogen sequence
C VI, N VII, O VIII, Ne X, Na XI, Mg XII, Al XIII, Si XIV, S XVI, Ar XVIII, Ca XX, Fe XXVI, Ni XXVIII

Helium sequence (including satellites to the hydrogen-like lines)
C V, N VI, O VII, Ne IX, Na X, Mg XI, Al XII, Si XIII, S XV, Ar XVII, Ca XIX, Fe XXV, Ni XXVII

Lithium sequence satellites to the helium-like lines
C IV, N V, O VI, Ne VIII, Na IX, Mg X, Al XI, Si XII, S XIV, Ar XVI, Ca XVIII, Fe XXIV, Ni XXVI

Lithium sequence with inner-shell excitations
O VI, Ne VIII, Mg X, Al XI, Si XII, S XIV, Ar XVI, Ca XVIII, Fe XXIV, Ni XXV

Other dielectronic satellites to helium-lines
Fe XXI, Fe XXII, Fe XXIII

Beryllium sequence
Mg IX: R-matrix collision strengths included

Nitrogen sequence
Fe XX: R-matrix collision strengths withing the ground configuration

Neon sequence
Fe XVII: n=4 levels now included
Ni XIX: n=4 levels now included

Silicon sequence
S III
Fe XIII: R-matrix collision strengths included for some transitions

Sulphur sequence
Fe XI: R-matrix collision strengths included for some transitions

Chlorine sequence
Fe X: n=4 and n=5 levels included



CHIANTI IDL Procedures Updates

Procedures for calculating the continuum due to free-free (bremsstrahlung) and free-bound (radiative recombination) are now included. Their names are 'FREEFREE' and 'FREEBOUND', respectively. A procedure ('RAD_LOSS') calculates the total radiative loss rate as a function of temperature for specified set of abundances and/or ionization equilibria.

One nice feature initiated in Version 1.03 is that by typing the name of a procedure, while in IDL, it's correct calling sequence is returned.

We have also renamed some of the utility procedures ('ch_...') so that they don't conflict with IDL procedures distributed with the Solar Soft-Tree.

12 April 1999 - CHIANTI version 2 now available

Version 2.0 is now available for downloading at the following site:

http://wwwsolar.nrl.navy.mil/chianti.html

Version 2.0 adds atomic data for many of the so called minor ions, such as fluorine and potassium, not included in the first version. Because the astrophysical abundances of these elements are relatively low, only the strongest lines of these elements are observed. The addition of the minor ions is an important step in our goal to understand astrophsical spectra in detail. In addition, Version 2.0 extends the beryllium-like sequence, updates some of the data in Version 1, and provides an IDL procedure to calculate the continuum.

1 March 1999 - CHIANTI Paper III published

Paper III of the CHIANTI series has been published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series (Vol. 135, 339-346). This paper describes the updates that will be contained in Version 2 of the database.

We are still performing checks on the new data and routines contained in Version 2, but it will be ready for release soon.

20 Feb 1998 - REVISED Ca XVI FILE

The ca_16.splups file has been revised. You can download this new file below:

ca_16.splups.

18 June 1997 - CHIANTI PAPER II SUBMITTED

The second paper in the CHIANTI series has been submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, and in it we perform a detailed comparison of theoretical line intensities predicted from the CHIANTI atomic data with the observed intensities contained in the SERTS-89 active region spectrum. The paper has been later published in Astronomy & Astrophysics 329, 291-314.

29 April 1997 - VERSION 1.01 RELEASED

We have made the following changes to the CHIANTI data base that is now released as version 1.01. Because of the number of changes and correction, we suggest that the complete database should be downloaded following the standard procedures in the README file. When the version 1.01 tar file is extracted, if will simply overwrite the existing files. There is no need to remove the version 1.0 files. Alternately, you could extract it into a new directory, make sure that your procedures work and then delete the old version.

Changes/corrections to the database are:

1. Fe X
The wavelength of transition 1-5 was corrected to 256.239 from 256.197
2. Beryllium sequence
3. Boron sequence
4. Fe XX
The wavelengths and gf and A values are now those from the NIST database. In particular, some of the strong lines in the EUVE short wave spectra are better matched with these data. Thanks to Rolf Mewe for pointing this out.
5. Differential emission measures
In the first release of CHIANTI, the differential emission measures were defined such that:

Intensity = Integral ( G(T) DEM(T) dlnT )

The advantage of this definition was that it was possible to compare to isothermal emission measures in a fairly direct fashion. However, the more standard definition is:

Intensity = Integral ( G(T) DEM(T) dT )

and we have decided to revert to this latter definition. Accordingly, all the of sample differential emission measures in !xuvtop/dem have been converted to this definition and the IDL procedures have been changed to perform the standard integration.

6. Ionization equilibria
The ionization equilibria Arnaud and Raymond (1992) for iron are also now included in the file 'arnaud_raymond.ioneq' in the standard directory. The ionization equilibria for all other ions are also included in this file but the values are taken from Arnaud and Rothenflug (1985). Thanks to Jeremy Drake for help in producing this file.
7. IDL procedures
A procedure isothermal.pro, written by Jeff Newmark (GSFC) is now included in our distribution of CHIANTI IDL procedures. It allows the calculation of the emitted spectrum at a specified temperature or at several specified temperatures. The density at each temperature can also be specified.
Because of the change in the treatment of differential emission measure files, it is also necessary to download the latest compressed tar file of the CHIANTI IDL procedures: CHIANTI_1.02_pro.tar.Z
The most conventient way to download these files is to go to our web site: http://wwwsolar.nrl.navy.mil/chianti.html
Please let us know of any problems or difficulties. Also, we believe that CHIANTI can now be run on VMS machines but needs to be tested. CHIANTI can also be easily adapted to run on Windows machines (Joan Schmelz, U. Memphis, has already demonstrated this) and we hope to have this incorporated into the next release.
8. CHIANTI and the Solar Software Library
CHIANTI is now included as part of the Solar Software Library. The CHIANTI consortium maintains a set of data files and IDL procedures on the web and anonymous ftp sites at NRL and Arcetri. We consider these to be the 'official' CHIANTI files. The Solar Software Library obtains copies of these files. The data files should be identical. There are small but significant modifications to the IDL procedures. These modifications mostly involve the use of IDL system variables by the CHIANTI IDL procedures and the use of Unix system variables by the Solar Software Library versions of these programs.

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Last revised by G. Del Zanna on 4-Sep-2009