CHIANTI-An Atomic Database for Emission Lines. VIII. Comparison with Solar Flare Spectra from the Solar Maximum Mission Flat Crystal Spectrometer

The CHIANTI atomic database contains atomic energy levels, wavelengths, radiative transition probabilities, and collisional excitation data for a large number of ions of astrophysical interest. CHIANTI also includes a suite of IDL routines to calculate synthetic spectra and carry out plasma diagnostics. Version 5 has been released, which includes several new features, as well as new data for many ions. The new features in CHIANTI are as follows: the inclusion of ionization and recombination rates to individual excited levels as a means to populate atomic levels; data for K and K emission from Fe ii to Fe xxiv; new data for high-energy configurations in Fe xvii to Fe xxiii; and a complete reassessment of level energies and line identifications in the X-ray range, multitemperature particle distributions, and photoexcitation from any user-defined radiation field. New data for ions already in the database, as well as data for ions not present in earlier versions of the database, are also included. Version 5 of CHIANTI represents a major improve-ment in the calculation of line emissivities and synthetic spectra in the X-ray range and expands and improves theo-retical spectra calculations in all other wavelength ranges. Subject headinggs: atomic data — plasmas 1