SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 2001 THE ATOMDB HAS BECOME THE STANDARD REPOSITORY OF ACCURATE AND ACCESSIBLE ATOMIC DATA FOR THE X-RAY ASTROPHYSICS COMMUNITY INCLUDING LABORATORY ASTROPHYSICISTS OBSERVERS AND MODELERS. MODERN CALCULATIONS OF COLLISIONAL EXCITATION RATES NOW EXIST - AND ARE IN ATOMDB - FOR ALL ABUNDANT IONS IN A HOT PLASMA. ATOMDB HAS EXPANDED BEYOND PROVIDING JUST A COLLISIONAL MODEL AND NOW ALSO CONTAINS PHOTOIONIZATION DATA FROM XSTAR AS WELL AS A CHARGE EXCHANGE MODEL AMONGST OTHERS. HOWEVER BUILDING AND MAINTAINING AN ACCURATE AND COMPLETE DATABASE THAT CAN FULLY EXPLOIT THE DIAGNOSTIC POTENTIAL OF HIGH-RESOLUTION X-RAY SPECTRA REQUIRES FURTHER WORK. THE HITOMI RESULTS SADLY LIMITED AS THEY WERE DEMONSTRATED THE URGENT NEED FOR THE BEST-POSSIBLE WAVELENGTH AND RATE DATA NOT MERELY FOR THE STRONGEST LINES BUT FOR THE DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES THAT MAY HAVE 1% OR LESS OF THE FLUX OF THE STRONG LINES. IN PARTICULAR INCORPORATION OF WEAK BUT POWERFULLY DIAGNOSTIC SATELLITE LINES WILL BE CRUCIAL TO UNDERSTANDING THE SPECTRA EXPECTED FROM UPCOMING DEEP OBSERVATIONS WITH CHANDRA AND XMM-NEWTON AS WELL AS THE XARM AND ATHENA SATELLITES. BEYOND INCORPORATING THIS NEW DATA A NUMBER OF GROUPS BOTH EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL HAVE BEGUN TO PRODUCE DATA WITH ERRORS AND/OR SENSITIVITY ESTIMATES. WE PLAN TO USE THIS TO CREATE STATISTICALLY MEANINGFUL SPECTRAL ERRORS ON COLLISIONAL PLASMAS PROVIDING PRACTICAL UNCERTAINTIES TOGETHER WITH MODEL SPECTRA. WE PROPOSE TO CONTINUE TO (1) ENGAGE THE X-RAY ASTROPHYSICS COMMUNITY REGARDING THEIR ISSUES AND NEEDS NOTABLY BY A CRITICAL COMPARISON WITH OTHER RELATED DATABASES AND TOOLS (2) ENHANCE ATOMDB TO INCORPORATE A LARGE NUMBER OF SATELLITE LINES AS WELL AS UPDATED WAVELENGTHS WITH ERROR ESTIMATES (3) CONTINUE TO UPDATE THE ATOMDB WITH THE LATEST CALCULATIONS AND LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS IN PARTICULAR VELOCITY-DEPENDENT CHARGE EXCHANGE RATES AND (4) ENHANCE EXISTING TOOLS AND CREATE NEW ONES AS NEEDED TO INCREASE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF AND ACCESS TO ATOMDB.
$463,209FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC