Below are images of the spectra of the lines of each element which would be observed as emission lines in an electrical gas discharge. The images are screen shots of an applet - originally written by John Talbot - which reads in a file with wavelengths and intensities and makes a colourful representation of the spectrum. All data are taken from the NIST Atomic Spectra Databaseby the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD., U.S.A. The line intensities are as given in these tables, to give an impression of the relative line strength. However, it must be emphasized that the spectra shown may not correspond to the discharges we see in the form of various street lamps, because the excitation conditions (electric voltage, temperature, density) may well be different ...

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The Applet with user control of all parameters is here.

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This is how the eyes of my students seem to perceive the colours of the solar continuum

and this is how they perceive the solar spectrum with its absorption lines

but this is how it looks to my own eyes

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Click on any of the following spectra to show it in greater detail:

Hydrogen

Helium

Carbon

Nitrogen

Oxygen

Neon

Sodium

Magnesium

Aluminum

Silicon

Sulfur

Argon

Potassium

Calcium

Iron

Krypton

Strontium

Xenon

Barium

Mercury

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The Applet with user control of all parameters is here.

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• If you click on an element's name in the table below, you can see the spectrum in a more detailed view
• If you prefer not to run the Applet click corresponding JPG in the next to last column to obtain an image.

The chemical elements
Atomic No.	Element	Symbol	Data file	Emission Lines 4000-7000 Å	Jpeg Image
1	Hydrogen	H	hydrogen.txt	5	JPEG
2	Helium	He	helium.txt	23	JPEG
6	Carbon	C	carbon.txt	27	JPEG
7	Nitrogen	N	nitrogen.txt	84	JPEG
8	Oxygen	O	oxygen.txt	73	JPEG
10	Neon	Ne	neon.txt	75	JPEG
11	Sodium	Na	sodium.txt	90	JPEG
12	Magnesium	Mg	magnesium.txt	54	JPEG
13	Aluminum	Al	aluminum.txt	38	JPEG
14	Silicon	Si	silicon.txt	109	JPEG
16	Sulfur	S	sulfur.txt	39	JPEG
18	Argon	Ar	argon.txt	159	JPEG
19	Potassium	K	potassium.txt	XX	JPEG
20	Calcium	Ca	calcium.txt	78	JPEG
26	Iron	Fe	iron.txt	235	JPEG
36	Krypton	Kr	krypton.txt	75	JPEG
XX	Strontium	Sr	strontium.txt	72	JPEG
54	Xenon	Xe	xenon.txt	139	JPEG
XX	Barium	Ba	barium.txt	116	JPEG
80	Mercury	Hg	mercury.txt	40	JPEG

Atomic Number	The number of protons in the nucleus of the element.
Element	Click on the name in this column to launch the Applet which displays an emission line spectrum of the corresponding element
Symbol	Symbol from the table of the elements
Data File	Click on the name to download a text file containing an a list of emission lines in Ångstroms and their associated strengths for the corresponding element
Emission Lines 4000-7000 Å	Number of tabulated emission lines in the visible wavelength range

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last update: 21 June 2007 J.Köppen