AbstractA formal expansion of the CRM in powers of a small parameter is presented. The terms of the expansion are products of matrices. Inverses are interpreted as effects of cascades.It will be shown that this allows for the separation of the different contributions to the populations, thus providing a natural classification scheme for processes involving atoms in plasmas. Sum rules can be formulated, allowing the population of the levels, in some simple cases, to be related in a transparent way to the quantum numbers.