AtomDB and PyAtomDB: Tools for Adding New Data to the AtomDB Database and Assessing their Uncertainties

The AtomDB project provides a curated set of atomic data and plasma models for analyzing a range of plasma models, primarily in the X-ray band. The data are collected from a range of theoretical and experimental sources. Due to the nature of modeling software, we choose one data set to be used for each physical process – there is only one wavelength for each transition, and one collisional excitation rate. However, in some cases there are competing data sets. In others there is a need to merge data sets to include a wider range of energy levels or transitions. Normally, this process takes many months, possibly years, for the AtomDB team to correctly merge new data into the existing database. This creates significant bottlenecks on not only using new data to model plasma, but even of identifying the exact effects of the new data in the first place. Even working out if new data will make any observable difference, and is therefore worth spending the time to incorporate into the database, has a significant delay.

We present here a new set of tools which we have created which will allow users to add their own data quickly, and generate new emissivity files for immediate use in fitting programs. This enables rapid ingestion of experimental and theoretical data, allowing users to look at the effect of different data sets without waiting on the AtomDB project to do so.

In addition, we highlight recent work presenting the effects of uncertainties in the atomic data on the resulting spectra, allowing users to also understand the limitations atomic data puts on current and future instrument performance.