Collision processes of ionization, dissociation and excitation of the planetary atmospheric gases

This paper concerns with the problem of creation of a database of reliable atomic data used in many applications, in particular, in aeronomy and astro physics. To solve this problem, a group of authors performed an extensive a mount of compiled and analytical work which resulted in publication of the Handbook <<Collision processes and Excitation of UV Emission from Planetary Atmospheric Gases>> (Avakyan el al., 1998). The Handbook contains recommended data on cross sections for different coll ision processes in atmospheres of the Earth, planets, comets and artificial objects such as rockets and clouds. The database obtained has rather wide range of applications including aeron omy (ionosphere-communication, aurora, near-Earth space weather. including local perturbations), astrophysics, plasma physics, ecology, physics atomic collisions (mechanisms and probabilities of inelastic processes) and spect roscopy (UV emission spectra and cross sections of atoms, molecules and rad icals in the range lambda=40 - 400 nm. In this paper, the main attention is paid to some aspects concerning the pr esent situation with fundamental constant, status of the available experime ntal data and drawbacks met in creating the database. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.