VALD configuration file (VALD3 version)

The VALD configuration file sets a few global extraction parameters, and lists the data files to be included for extraction. The first line contains the wavelength window and the reference wavelength for line identification, the maximum ionization stage, and the maximum excitation potential for the lower level in eV. However, the latter two parameters are not used, neither in preselect3 nor in showline4. The reference wavelength wl_ref is used to scale the wavelength window when comparing lines from different data files. The maximum scaling factor is 100: wl_window = min(max(wl_window_ref * wl / wl_ref, wl_window_ref*0.01), wl_window_ref*100).

Part of a line starting with a semicolon is interpreted as a comment. Otherwise, one line corresponds to a single data file. Each line starts with the filename includeing a path relative to the VALD home directory. The next parameter is a unique number of the line list in the configuration file. This number is only used for associating the list name with the extracted data field, and thus does not have to be consistent between different configuration files. The two next entries give the range of species included in the file using the VALD unique species number (see VALD list of species). This is the reason why the species number in the VALD species list must be monotonous!

The next entry is new compared to VALD2: it is a flag that indicates that the list can be merged (0), is exempt from any merger (1) or is a replacement list (2).

The rest of the line is as for VALD2: nine weights used for merging data for the same transition from different files (integer numbers for wavelength, gf-value, upper level energy, lower level energy, Landé factor, radiative-, Stark-, and Van der Waals broadening, and the level designation), followed by the short name of the line list. The following fragment illustrates the use of replacement flag:

 ...
 171 '/CVALD3/ATOMS/Ga_NIST_V3',             185,   466,  468,0,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3, 'Ga 1-2-3 NIST data'
 172 '/CVALD3/ATOMS/Si1_exp_V3',             186,    92,   92,0,3,4,3,3,3,3,3,3,3, 'Si exp.'
 173 '/CVALD3/ATOMS/vdw_barklem_final',      249,     4, 1542,2,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,8,1, 'Van der Waals data'
 174 '/CVALD3/MOLECULES/Ti46O_Plez_merged',  250,  5036, 5036,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2, 'Plez 2009 Ti46O list'
 175 '/CVALD3/MOLECULES/Ti47O_Plez_merged',  251,  5037, 5037,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2, 'Plez 2009 Ti47O list'
 ...                                                          ^

An example for a VALD3 configuration file can be found here.