A Software Package for Rigorously Calculating Optical Plasma Spectra and Automatically Rtrieving Plasma Properties

TL;DR

OPSIAL is a software tool that accurately calculates optical plasma spectra and automatically retrieves plasma parameters, supporting LTE conditions and line broadening effects, demonstrated on Mars rover spectral data.

Contribution

The paper introduces OPSIAL, a novel software package that rigorously computes plasma spectra and automatically extracts plasma properties from emission data.

Findings

Successfully analyzed Mars rover spectral data

Supports LTE and partial LTE conditions

Accounts for Doppler and collisional line broadening

Abstract

In this article, a software package code named OPSIAL (Optical Plasma Spectral Calculation And Parameters Retrieval) for rigorously calculating optical plasma spectra and for automatically retrieving plasma parameters is presented. OPSIAL calculates the absolute spectral radiance caused by the bound-bound transitions of elemental species in the plasma by rigorously solving the equation of radiative transfer using an ultrafast line-by-line algorithm. OPSIAL supports both the local-thermodynamic-equilibrium (LTE) or partial LTE conditions and takes account of line broadenings due to the Doppler effect and collisions with electrons and other pseudo colliders in the plasma. An algorithm for fully automatically identifying elemental species and retrieving plasma parameters based on observed plasma emission spectra has been implemented into OPSIAL. The structure and theoretical framework of OPSIAL, together with a case study of using OPSIAL to analyze laser-induced breakdown spectral data of the ChemCam instrument onboard the Mars rover Curiosity, are presented.