Visual-wavelength (top) and NIR (bottom): +18d X-Shooter spectrum of SN 2010ae (black), compared to the best-fit SYNAPPS synthetic spectrum (red). The various ions included in the model calculations are also plotted. As discussed in Sect. 5.1 the synthetic spectra shown here were computed using a different input set of ions and values of v_phot. The observed spectrum has been flattened and sigma-clipped. Prevalent telluric regions in the optical are indicated with an Earth symbol.