Summary of the IRON and OPACITY Projects

Abstract

Considerable effort has been made recently by international collaborations, exploiting advances in atomic physics and in supercomputing, to compute complete sets of accurate data for astrophysically important processes; in particular, the Opacity Project and the IRON Project.The Opacity Project computed atomic data for opacity calculations• for H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe.• energies of terms having effective quantum numbers v≤10 and total angular momentum L≤3 or 4, all spin and parity combinations;• gƒ-values for all dipole transitions between these bound terms;• total cross sections for photoionizaion from all calculated bound terms, tabulated on a grid of photon energies suitable to describe the resonance structure in sufficient detail to calculate reliable opacities;• line broadening parameters.28 key research papers arising from the Project, together with calculated energies and oscillator strengths for light ions, are reprinted in ‘The Opacity Project Volume 1’ (Opacity Project Team, 1994, IOP Publ. ISBN 0 7503 0288 7). All data are available from TOPbase, an on-line database at the CDS (Cunto et al. 1993, A&A 275, L5).The IRON Project aims to systematically compute electron excitation cross sections for the iron group of elements. Particular attention is given to requirements for the interpretation of data from specific space observations.In the first stage of the Project excitation cross sections have been computed for fine-structure transitions in the ground configuration of all ions of astrophysical interest. These data are essential for the interpretation of IR lines to be observed by ISO, as well as for coronal spectra.