The main GUI consists of four tabbed panels. The first, “Parameters” panel allows for defining the parameters of the plasma model: Ne, Te, Zi, Mi, Ti, Zr, Mr, Tr, Pr, B, and those of the atomic system of the radiator: nu and nl. Ni and Nr, are automatically updated assuming plasma quasi-neutrality.
Since usually one is interested in fully thermalized plasmas (Te = Ti = Tr), for convenience, changing Te automatically updates Ti and Tr, while changing Ti automatically updates Tr. Therefore, if Te ≠ Ti ≠ Tr is required, one should first enter Te, followed by Ti and further followed by setting Tr. A complete set of plasma parameters can be saved using “File→Save” or “File→Save As” menu entries under a desired name for further loading.
The next, “Explorer” panel, allows for browsing plasma entities arranged in a tree structure according to the dimension units.
If desired, the displayed entities can be filtered either according to the species they refer to (Electrons/Ions/Radiators), or by section they belong to (Fundamental/Waves/Collisions/Spectroscopy/Radiation) using the “View→Show Species” and “View→Show Sections” menu entries, respectively.
Selecting an entity from the list results in its value being calculated (for the plasma parameters selected) and displayed, and the corresponding Wikipedia article (if exists) optionally shown. The calculated value can be shown in a.u., SI, CGS, and some more widely used units, e.g., Å for entities having dimension of length. While selected, the enitity can be added to, or removed from, the list of “favourites” using either the context-sensitive or menubar “Edit” pull-down menu. The “favourite” enitities are used for further comparison or plotting (see below).
The third, “Compare” panel serves for comparison of previously selected “favourite” entities, where these are listed in a table by groups having the same dimension.
Finally, the “Plot” panel, allows for graphing the previously selected “favourites” (again, by groups having the same dimension) as a function of one of the parameters of the plasma model: Ne, Te, Ti, Tr, Pr, and B.
It is also possible to change Ti and Tr or all three Te, Ti, and Tr simultaneously. The range of the parameter being varied, line colors, and number of points are adjustable. The data sets can be exported in a simple ASCII format.