In order to study the discharge process of vacuum arc ion source, make a detail description of the discharge plasma, and lay the foundation for further research on ion source, atomic emission spectrometry was used to diagnose the parameters of plasma produced by vaccum arc ion source. In the present paper, two kinds of analysis method for the emission spectra data collected by a spectrometer were developed. Those were based in the stark broadening of spectral lines and Saba-Boltzmann equation. Using those two methods, the electron temperature, electron number density and the ion temperature of the plasma can be determined. The emission spectroscopy data used in this paper was collected from the plasma produced by a vacuum arc ion source whose cathode was made by Ti material (which adsorbed hydrogen during storage procedure). Both of the two methods were used to diagnose the plasma parameters and judge the thermal motion state of the plasma. Otherwise, the validity of the diagnostic results by the two methods were analyzed and compared. In addition, the affection from laboratory background radiation during the spectral acquisition process was discussed.