Laboratory astrophysics: Improving the atomic data by Fourier transform spectrometry

The recent improvements in astronomical telescopes and spectrographs have c reated huge and urgent demands for matching improvements in the laboratory atomic database needed for the analyses of the astrophysical spectra obtain ed using them. The suitability of Fourier Transform Spectrometry (FTS) for improving the atomic database is discussed. Progress and achievements in th e technique of FTS are outlined together with a brief summary of the advanc es made, using FTS, in our knowledge of the spectra of the neutral, singly and doubly ionised 3d transition elements.