(1) Center for Astrophysics, Univ. of Sci. and Tech. of China, 230026, P. R. China;(2) National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, 122212 Beijing, P.R. China;(3) Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, D-85741 Garching, Germany
Abstract:
We present Perl Algorithm to Compute continuum and Equivalent Widths (pacce). We describe the methods used in the computations and the requirements for its usage. We compare the measurements made with pacce and “manual” ones made using irafsplot task. These tests show that for synthetic simple stellar population (SSP) models the equivalent widths strengths are very similar (differences ?0.2 Å) for both measurements. In real stellar spectra, the correlation between both values is still very good, but with differences of up to 0.5 Å. pacce is also able to determine mean continuum and continuum at line center values, which are helpful in stellar population studies. In addition, it is also able to compute the uncertainties in the equivalent widths using photon statistics. The code is made available for the community through the web at http://www.if.ufrgs.br/~riffel/software.html.