KAPPA: A Package for the Synthesis of Optically Thin Spectra for the Non-Maxwellian kappa-distributions. II. Major Update to Compatibility with CHIANTI Version 10

KAPPA is a database and software for the calculation of the optically thin spectra for the non-Maxwellian kappa-distributions that were recently diagnosed in the plasma of solar coronal loops, flares, as well as in the transition region. KAPPA is based on the widely used CHIANTI database and reproduces many of its capabilities for kappa-distributions. Here we perform a major update of the KAPPA database, including a near-complete recalculation of the ionization, recombination, excitation, and deexcitation rates for all ions in the database, as well as an implementation of the two-ion model for calculations of relative-level populations (and intensities) if these are modified by ionization and recombination from or to excited levels. As an example of KAPPA usage, we explore novel diagnostics of kappa, and show that O iii lines near 500 and 700 angstrom provide a strong sensitivity to kappa, with some line intensity ratios changing by a factor of up to 2-4 compared to Maxwellian. This is much larger than previously employed diagnostics of kappa.