Electron Impact Excitation of S III*

We present collision strengths and effective collision strengths for the electron impact excitation of S\,{\sc iii}. The paralell RMATRX II suite of codes have been used, which perform the calculation in intermediate coupling, and we have incorporated 29 $LS$ states in our calculation, which gives rise to 53 fine structure levels and a total of 1378 transitions. Collision strengths have been generated over an electron energy range of 0-12\,Ryd, and from these effective collision strength data are determined for electron temperatures in the range log$_{10}$T(K)=3.0-6.0. Results are given for transitions between the the fine structure levels within the ground state configuration of 3s$^2$3p$^2$. Comparisons are made with the previous $R$-matrix calculations of Galav\'{i}s, Mendoza \& Zeippen [1] (carried out as part of the IRON Project) and that of Tayal \& Gupta [2]. Our current work helps to resolve a large discrepancy which existed between the these two earlier calculations for some of the data within the ground state transitions.\\[4pt] 1] Galav\'{i}s ME, Mendoza C, \& Zeippen CJ 1995, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 111 347;\\[0pt] [2] Tayal SS \& Gupta GP 1999 ApJ 526 544.