Latest news from the VALD consortium :

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2026-08-10,  2025-02-03,  2020-05-18,  2018-06-08,  2015-12-01, 

2015-11-01,  2015-05-23,  2014-02-05,  2011-03-23

2026-08-10

Welcome to the new VALD!

This website is the new interface to VALD. We hope everything feels familiar, but please note that

• You do not need to register anew, but you do need to set a password. Enter your registered email address in the login form and we will send you a one-time activation link, which lets you set the password for future logins.
• Your unit preferences and custom line-list configuation has been imported from the old system.
• Under "My Requests" you can now see the status and download links of your queries.
• The "Modify"-link allows to re-fill the fields with the values from an earlier query, then edit and re-submit.
• Requests are now handled immediately and in parallel, so results should appear quicker. Some queries can however still take minutes to finish.
• The data and extraction methods are unchanged, you get the same results as from the old site.

For feedback and bug-reports, please feel free to contact us.

2025-02-03

Cooling system maintanance in Uppsala: VALD server down for 4-6 hours on February 5th, 2025

Due to the scheduled work on the cooling system in one of the big server rooms in Ångström Labs in Uppsala the main and the backup servers of VALD3 will be unavailable from 8am CET until around noon of the same day.

Sorry for the inconvenience, VALD team

2020-05-18

Hyperfine Structure splitting is now in VALD3

From now on VALD3 has the option to include the HFS splitting into the extraction result. The new option is supported by the Web interface (look for HFS splitting button) or via new extraction option "HFS splitting" to be included into the EMS request. The splitting constants and the corresponding bibliography were collected by Yuri Pakhomov and presented in Pakhomov, Ryabchikova and Piskunov, 2019, Astronomy Reports, 63, 1010.

The output stream is sorted in wavelengths so that the HFS components may appear interleaved by other transitions. At this point we fully support the following extraction modes: Extract All, Extract Element and Extract Stellar. Showline will follow in a few days.

We have decided to start with HFS splitting as an option. Once we get your feedback and check that things are working fine (even though we spent several months testing this option) we will add HFS splitting to default extraction. Then, to turn HFS splitting off you would have to uncheck the corresponding box in the Web interface or specify "no HFS splitting" in the EMS request.

Enjoy!

2018-06-08

Service interruptions in Uppsala

Due to planned maintenance, the VALD service in Uppsala may be unavailable on June 11, 12 and 13. Our mirrors in Vienna or Moscow will be unaffected.

2015-12-01

Isotopic components of Ba II in VALD

From November 26, 2015, VALD by default provides isotopic components of the most important Ba II lines (4554, 4934, 5853, 6141 and 6194 A).

2015-11-01

UPDATE - Improved Fe I line data in VALD

Recently, new line data for Fe I has become available (Kurucz, 2014). These data are based on observed (measured) and predicted (calculated) energy levels, and are a significant improvement over earlier line data (Kurucz, 2007). Line data from these new linelist are now available in VALD through lists 721 (measured transitions) and 3621 (predicted transitions).

As of today the new line data will be offered by default.

If you want to go back to using the older data from 2007, you can do this by reenabling the older lists in your personalized linelist configuration. In that case you should disable list 721, and reenable list 720.

Note that your personalized linelist configuration will only be used if you explicitly select this during extraction (select 'custom' under 'linelist configuration').

2015-05-23

Improved Fe I line data in VALD

Recently, new line data for Fe I has become available (Kurucz, 2014). These data are based on observed (measured) and predicted (calculated) energy levels, and are a significant improvement over earlier line data (Kurucz, 2007).

At the moment the new line data are not offered by default, but any user can include these in their extractions by enabling these lists in their personalized linelist configuration. To obtain the new observed line data the user should enable list 721 and disable list 720. For predicted line data, one should use list 3621 instead of list 3620.

From July 1st, the VALD database will change its internal settings and offer the new linelists by default.

Other recent developments are the inclusion of new experimental data for V I, VII and Ni I (source: Wisconsin laboratory).

2014-02-05

VALD3 at first release

VALD3 has now left the testing stage, and we are releasing this service to the community with full functionality. VALD3 can now be used by any user that already had access to VALD2

At this moment we feel confident that the service is stable, and that it works to expectations. Compared to VALD2, there are several updated features:

• More and extended line lists, including lists with molecular transitions (TiO, MgH, CN, CO, C2, OH and more). See the online documentation for more details.
• A new interactive extraction mode, showline-online, that will immediately list all data from VALD3 available in a certain wavelength interval and species.
• Completely overhauled routines throughout the entire interface.
• Possibilities for users to set their own default units for data extraction.
• Full bibliography of the extracted data in BibTeX format.
• Automatic synchronization across all available sites.

2011-03-23

VALD3 now in beta testing

VALD3 has now started the beta testing phase. This means that we are releasing this service to a limit number of users for testing and reviewing purposes.

While we have taken every effort to make this release as close as possible to the final release, we leave no guarantee on the accuracy of the content at this moment. Content may still be changed at any time without warning. Please do not use these data for scientific purposes.

We welcome any comment on missing data, problems with the software and requests for unimplemented features. Please leave your comments to the VALD administrator through our contact page.