Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
In this section I briefly describe my efforts to improve the atomic and molecular line data. This work is described in more detail in Kurucz (1992a). In subsequent sections I briefly describe three methods for computing opacity and the models and spectra that result from using them.
My model calculations in the 1970s used the distribution-function line opacity computed by Kurucz (1979a,b) from the line data of Kurucz & Peytremann (1975). We had computed gf values for 1.7 million atomic lines for sequences up through nickel using scaled-Thomas-Fermi-Dirac wavefunctions and eigenvectors determined from least squares Slater parameter fits to the observed energy levels. We also collected all published data on g f values and included them in the line list whenever they appeared to be more reliable than the computed data (that work is ongoing, but I am running behind).