Search

The reaction 13C(alpha,n) is considered to be the main source of neutrons for the s-process in AGB stars. At low energies the cross section is dominated by the 1/2+ 6.356 MeV sub-threshold resonance in 17O whose contribution is determined with a very large uncertainty of ~1000% at stellar temperatures. In this work we performed the most precise determination of the low-energy astrophysical S factor using the indirect asymptotic normalization (ANC) technique. The alpha-particle ANC for the sub-threshold state has been measured using the sub-Coulomb alpha-transfer reaction (6Li,d). Using the determined ANC we calculated S(0), which turns out to be an order of magnitude smaller than in the NACRE compilation., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Accurate emission line fluxes from planetary nebulae (PNe) provide important constraints on the nature of the final phases of stellar evolution. Large, evolved PNe may trace the latest stages of PN evolution, where material from the AGB wind is returned to the interstellar medium. However, the low surface brightness and spatially extended emission of large PNe have made accurate measurements of line fluxes difficult with traditional long-slit spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, distinguishing these nebulae from HII regions, supernova remnants, or interstellar gas ionized by a hot, evolved stellar core can be challenging. Here, we report on an ongoing survey of large Galactic PNe (r > 5') with the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), a Fabry-Perot spectrograph designed to detect faint diffuse optical emission lines with high sensitivity and spectral resolution. Our sample includes newly revealed H-alpha enhancements from the AAO/UKST and WHAM H-alpha surveys of Parker et al. and Haffner et al. We present accurate emission line fluxes of H-alpha, [NII], and [OIII], and compare our data to other measurements. We use the emission line ratios and kinematics of the ionized gas to assess, or in some cases reassess, the identification of some nebulae., Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to be published in IAU Symp. 234: `Planetary Nebulae in Our Galaxy and Beyond', eds. M.J. Barlow, R.H. Mendez

We report on new observations of the motion of zodiacal dust using optical absorption line spectroscopy of zodiacal light. We have measured the change in the profile shape of the scattered solar Mg I 5184 line toward several lines of sight in the ecliptic plane as well as the ecliptic pole. The variation in line centroid and line width as a function of helio-ecliptic longitude show a clear prograde signature and suggest that significant fraction of the dust follows non-circular orbits that are not confined to the ecliptic plane. When combined with dynamical models, the data suggest that the zodiacal dust is largely cometary, rather than asteroidal, in origin., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in refereed proceedings of 'Dust in Planetary Systems' (ESA), ed. H. Kruger & A. Graps, Sept. 2005

Fragmentation reactions with intermediate-energy heavy-ion beams exhibit a wide range of reaction mechanisms, ranging from direct reactions to statistical processes. We examine this transition by measuring the relative population of excited states in several sd-shell nuclei produced by fragmentation with the number of removed nucleons ranging from two to sixteen. The two-nucleon removal is consistent with a non-dissipative process whereas the removal of more than five nucleons appears to be mainly statistical., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

We apply our three dimensional photoionization code to model Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper observations of the H II region surrounding the O9.5V star Zeta Oph. Our models investigate the porosity of the interstellar medium around zeta Oph and the effects of 3D densities on the H-alpha surface brightness and variation in the [N II]/H-alpha line ratio. The Zeta Oph H II region has a well characterized ionizing source, so it is an excellent starting point for 3D models of diffuse ionized gas. We investigate various hierarchically clumped density structures, varying the overall smoothness within the clumping algorithm. By simulating the observations, we can estimate the porosity of the medium in the vicinity of Zeta Oph and find that within the context of our hierarchically clumped models, around 50% to 80% of the volume is occupied by clumps surrounded by a low density smooth medium. We also conclude that in order for O stars to ionize the diffuse Warm Ionized Medium, the O star environment must be more porous than that surrounding Zeta Oph, with clumps occupying less than one half of the interstellar volume. Our clumpy models have irregular boundaries, similar to observed H II regions. However, in observed H II regions it is difficult to identify the precise location of the boundary because of the foreground and/or background emission from the widespread Warm Ionized Medium. This complicates the interpretation of the predicted rapid rise of some emission line ratios near the edge of uniform density H II regions and combined with the three dimensional clumpy nature of the interstellar medium may explain the apparent lack of distinctive emission line ratios near H I -- H II interfaces., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Halpha and Hbeta spectroscopy with the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) reveals a strong concentration of high velocity emission in a ~ 5 by 5 deg area centered near (l.b) = (27,-3), known as the Scutum Cloud. The high velocities imply that we are detecting optical emission from near the plane of the Galaxy out to the tangent point at heliocentric distances of D \gtrsim 6 kpc, assuming the gas participates in circular Galactic rotation. The ratio of the Halpha to Hbeta emission as a function of velocity suggests that dust along these lines of sight produces a total visual extinction of A_v ~ 3 at D ~ 6 kpc. This makes it possible to use optical emission lines to explore the physical conditions of ionized gas in the inner Galaxy. At a Galactocentric distance R_G ~ 4 kpc, for example, we find that the H^+ has an rms midplane density of ~ 1 cm^-3 with a vertical scale height of ~ 300 pc. We also find evidence for an increase in the flux of Lyman continuum photons and an increase in the ratio of ionized to neutral hydrogen toward the inner Galaxy. We have extended the measurements of E(B-V) in this direction to distances far beyond what has been accessible through stellar photometry and find E(B-V)/N_H to be near the local mean of 1.7 x 10^-22 cm^2 mag, with evidence for an increase in this ratio at R_G ~ 4 kpc. Finally, our observations of [NII] 6583, [SII] 6716, and [OIII] 5007 toward the window reveal that in the inner Galaxy the temperature of the gas and the ionization state of oxygen increase with increasing height from the midplane., Comment: ApJ, accepted. 28 pages, 13 figures, 1 table

We have identified 85 regions of enhanced H-Alpha emission at |b| > 10 degrees subtending approximately 1 degree or less on the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) sky survey. These high latitude ``WHAM point sources'' have H-Alpha fluxes of 10^{-11} to 10^{-9} erg cm^-2 s^-1, radial velocities within about 70 km/s of the LSR, and line widths that range from less than 20 km/s to about 80 km/s (FWHM). Twenty nine of these enhancements are not identified with either cataloged nebulae or hot stars and appear to have kinematic properties that differ from those observed for planetary nebulae. Another 14 enhancements are near hot evolved low mass stars that had no previously reported detections of associated nebulosity. The remainder of the enhancements are cataloged planetary nebulae and small, high latitude H II regions surrounding massive O and early B stars., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, to appear in Feb. 2005 AJ

Using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), we have measured at high spectral resolution and high signal-to-noise the profile of the scattered solar Mg I 5184 absorption line in the zodiacal light. The observations were carried out toward 49 directions that sampled the ecliptic equator from solar elongations of 48\dg (evening sky) to 334\dg (morning sky) plus observations near +47\dg and +90\dg ecliptic latitude. The spectra show a clear prograde kinematic signature that is inconsistent with dust confined to the ecliptic plane and in circular orbits influenced only by the sun's gravity. In particular, the broadened widths of the profiles, together with large amplitude variations in the centroid velocity with elongation angle, indicate that a significant population of dust is on eccentric orbits. In addition, the wide, flat-bottomed line profile toward the ecliptic pole indicates a broad distribution of orbital inclinations extending up to about 30\dg - 40\dg with respect to the ecliptic plane. The absence of pronounced asymmetries in the shape of the profiles limits the retrograde population to less than 10% of the prograde population and also places constraints on the scattering phase function of the particles. These results do not show the radial outflow or evening--morning velocity amplitude asymmetry reported in some earlier investigations. The reduction of the spectra included the discovery and removal of extremely faint, unidentified terrestrial emission lines that contaminate and distort the underlying Mg I profile. This atmospheric emission is too weak to have been seen in earlier, lower signal-to-noise observations, but it probably affected the line centroid measurements of previous investigations., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, to appear in ApJ v612; figures appear low-res only on screen

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) has surveyed the distribution and kinematics of ionized gas in the Galaxy above declination -30 degrees. The WHAM Northern Sky Survey (WHAM-NSS) has an angular resolution of one degree and provides the first absolutely-calibrated, kinematically-resolved map of the H-Alpha emission from the Warm Ionized Medium (WIM) within ~ +/-100 km/s of the Local Standard of Rest. Leveraging WHAM's 12 km/s spectral resolution, we have modeled and removed atmospheric emission and zodiacal absorption features from each of the 37,565 spectra. The resulting H-Alpha profiles reveal ionized gas detected in nearly every direction on the sky with a sensitivity of 0.15 R (3 sigma). Complex distributions of ionized gas are revealed in the nearby spiral arms up to 1-2 kpc away from the Galactic plane. Toward the inner Galaxy, the WHAM-NSS provides information about the WIM out to the tangent point down to a few degrees from the plane. Ionized gas is also detected toward many intermediate velocity clouds at high latitudes. Several new H II regions are revealed around early B-stars and evolved stellar cores (sdB/O). This work presents the details of the instrument, the survey, and the data reduction techniques. The WHAM-NSS is also presented and analyzed for its gross properties. Finally, some general conclusions are presented about the nature of the WIM as revealed by the WHAM-NSS., Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures (Fig 6-9 & 14 are full color); accepted for publication in 2003, ApJ, 149; Original quality figures (as well as data for the survey) are available at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/

The Wisconsin H Alpha Mapper has been used to set the first deep upper limits on the intensity of diffuse H alpha emission from warm ionized gas in the Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) Draco and Ursa Minor. Assuming a velocity dispersion of 15 km/s for the ionized gas, we set limits for the H alpha intensity of less or equal to 0.024 Rayleighs and less or equal to 0.021 Rayleighs for the Draco and Ursa Minor dSphs, respectively, averaged over our 1 degree circular beam. Adopting a simple model for the ionized interstellar medium, these limits translate to upper bounds on the mass of ionized gas of approximately less than 10% of the stellar mass, or approximately 10 times the upper limits for the mass of neutral hydrogen. Note that the Draco and Ursa Minor dSphs could contain substantial amounts of interstellar gas, equivalent to all of the gas injected by dying stars since the end of their main star forming episodes more than 8 Gyr in the past, without violating these limits on the mass of ionized gas., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, AASTeX two-column format. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

It has been suggested that high velocity clouds may be distributed throughout the Local Group and are therefore not in general associated with the Milky Way galaxy. With the aim of testing this hypothesis, we have made observations in the H-alpha line of high velocity clouds selected as the most likely candidates for being at larger than average distances. We have found H-alpha emission from 4 out of 5 of the observed clouds, suggesting that the clouds under study are being illuminated by a Lyman continuum flux greater than that of the metagalactic ionizing radiation. Therefore, it appears likely that these clouds are in the Galactic halo and not distributed throughout the Local Group., Comment: 12 pages, 5 eps figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We present spectroscopic observations of ionized gas in the disk-halo regions of five edge-on galaxies, covering a wavelength range from [OII] 3727A to [SII] 6716.4A. The inclusion of the [OII] emission provides additional constraints on the properties of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG), in particular, the origin of the observed spatial variations in the line intensity ratios. We have derived electron temperatures, ionization fractions and abundances along the slit. Our data include both slit positions parallel and perpendicular to the galactic disks. This allowed us to examine variations in the line intensity ratios with height above the midplane as well as distance from the galactic centers. The observed increase in the [OII]/Halpha line ratio towards the halo seems to require an increase in electron temperature caused by a non-ionizing heating mechanism. We conclude that gradients in the electron temperature can play a significant role in the observed variations in the optical emission line ratios from extraplanar DIG., Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 43 pages including 26 figures

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) is a high throughput Fabry-Perot facility developed specifically to detect and explore the warm, ionized component of the interstellar medium at high spectral resolution. It began operating at Kitt Peak, Arizona in 1997 and has recently completed the WHAM Northern Sky Survey (WHAM-NSS), providing the first global view of the distribution and kinematics of the warm, diffuse H II in the Milky Way. This H-alpha survey reveals a complex spatial and kinematic structure in the warm ionized medium and provides a foundation for studies of the temperature and ionization state of the gas, the spectrum and strength of the ionizing radiation, and its relationship to other components of the interstellar medium and sources of ionization and heating within the Galactic disk and halo. More information about WHAM and the Survey can be found at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, Invited talk to appear in "Galaxies: The Third Dimension", eds. M. Rosada, L. Binette, & L. Arias (ASP: San Francisco), 2002

We have used the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) facility to measure the interstellar H-Alpha emission toward the high Galactic latitude O star HD 93521 (l = 183.1, b = +62.2). Three emission components were detected having radial velocities of -10 km s^{-1}, -51 km s^{-1}, and -90 km s^{-1} with respect to the local standard of rest (LSR) and H-Alpha intensities of 0.20 R, 0.15 R, and 0.023 R, respectively, corresponding to emission measures of 0.55 cm^{-6} pc, 0.42 cm^{-6} pc, and 0.06 cm^{-6} pc. We have also detected an H-Alpha emission component at -1 km s^{-1} (LSR) with an intensity of 0.20 R (0.55 cm^{-6} pc) toward the direction l = 148.5, b = +53.0, which lies in the region of exceptionally low H I column density known as the Lockman Window. In addition, we studied the direction l = 163.5, b = +53.5. Upper limits on the possible intensity of Galactic emission toward this direction are 0.11 R at the LSR and 0.06 R at -50 km s^{-1}. We also detected and characterized twelve faint (~0.03-0.15 R), unidentified atmospheric lines present in WHAM H-Alpha spectra. Lastly, we have used WHAM to obtain [O I] 6300 spectra along the line of sight toward HD 93521. We place an upper limit of 0.060 R on the [O I] intensity of the -51 km s^{-1} component. If the temperature of the gas is 10,000 K within the H-Alpha emitting region, the hydrogen ionization fraction n(H+)/n(H_total) > 0.6., Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. Acccepted for publication in the 1 Feb issue of The Astronomical Journal

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) has completed a one-degree resolution, velocity-resolved northern sky survey of H-alpha emission from our Galaxy. The unprecedented sensitivity of the instrument and accurate spectral subtraction of atmospheric features allow us to detect Galactic features as faint as 0.1 Rayleighs (EM ~ 0.25 cm^{-6} pc). This survey allows a direct comparison of the ionized and neutral components of the ISM on a global scale for the first time. All-sky maps of H-alpha emission in select velocity bands highlight the rich kinematic structure of the Galaxy's ionized gas. The full set of data from the WHAM survey is now available at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/. (abridged), Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in: "Seeing Through the Dust: The Detection of HI and the Exploration of the ISM in Galaxies", eds. R. Taylor, T. Landecker, & T. Willis (ASP: San Francisco), 2002

We have used the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) to observe the spatially extended distribution of ionized hydrogen in M31 beyond the stellar disk. We obtained five sets of observations, centered near the photometric major axis of M31, that extend from the center of the galaxy to just off the edge of the southwestern HI disk. Beyond the bright stellar disk, but within the HI disk, weak H-alpha is detected with an intensity I(H-alpha) = 0.05 (+0.01 / -0.02) Rayleighs. Since M31 is inclined 77 degrees with respect to the line of sight, this implies that the ambient intergalactic ionizing flux onto each side of M31 is Phi_0 <= 1.6 x 10^4 photons cm^-2 s^-1. Just beyond the outer boundary of the HI disk we find no significant detection of H-alpha and place an upper limit I(H-alpha) <= 0.019 Rayleighs., Comment: To appear in ApJ Letters; 12 pages, 4 figures

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey has revealed a loop of H II reaching 1300 pc from the Galactic midplane above the Cas OB6 association in the Perseus sprial arm. This enormous feature surrounds and extends far above the "W4 Chimney" identified by Normandeau et al. and appears to be associated with the star formation activity near the W3/W4/W5 H II region complex. The existence of this ionized structure suggests that past episodes of massive star formation have cleared the H I from an enormous volume above the Perseus arm, allowing Lyman continuum photons from O stars near the Galactic midplane to reach into the halo., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (Letters)

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey is revealing that many intermediate-velocity (|v_LSR| <= 100 km/s) neutral clouds and complexes have an associated ionized component. We present the first map of the H-Alpha emission from an intermediate- or high-velocity structure: Complex K. This large, high-latitude feature stretches from l = 10 to 70 degrees, b = +30 to +70 degrees and peaks in velocity over v_LSR ~ -60 to -80 km/s. The neutral and ionized gas generally trace each other quite well in the complex, but the detailed structure is not identical. In particular, the H-Alpha emission peaks in brightness at slightly higher Galactic longitudes than corresponding 21 cm features. The ionized gas has a peak H-Alpha intensity of 0.5 Rayleighs, corresponding to an emission measure of 1.1 cm^-6 pc. Structures in the complex are traced by WHAM down to about 0.1 Rayleighs (0.2 cm^-6 pc). Typical line widths of the H-Alpha emission are ~ 30 km/s, limiting temperatures in the ionized gas to < 20,000 K. If radiation is the primary ionizing mechanism, the Lyman continuum flux required to sustain the most strongly emitting ionized regions is 1.2 x 10^6 photons cm^-2 s^-1. There appears to be no local, stellar source capable of maintaining the ionization of the gas; however, the required ionizing flux is consistent with current models of the escape of Lyman continuum radiation from OB stars in the disk and of ionizing radiation produced by cooling supernova remnants., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, Figure 1 is full color and a higher quality version will be available on our web site. Published in Astrophysical Journal (Letters). Visit http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/ for more information

We present spectroscopic data of ionized gas in the disk--halo regions of three edge-on galaxies, NGC 891, NGC 4631 and NGC 3079, covering a wavelength range from [\ion{O}{2}] $\lambda$3727\AA to [\ion{S}{2}] $\lambda$6716.4\AA. The inclusion of the [\ion{O}{2}] emission provides new constraints on the properties of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG), in particular, the origin of the observed spatial variations in the line intensity ratios. We used three different methods to derive electron temperatures, abundances and ionization fractions along the slit. The increase in the [\ion{O}{2}]/H$\alpha$ line ratio towards the halo in all three galaxies requires an increase either in electron temperature or in oxygen abundance. Keeping the oxygen abundance constant yields the most reasonable results for temperature, abundances, and ionization fractions. Since a constant oxygen abundance seems to require an increase in temperature towards the halo, we conclude that gradients in the electron temperature play a significant role in the observed variations in the optical line ratios from extraplanar DIG in these three spiral galaxies., Comment: 43 pages, 29 figures

The extremely faint, temperature sensitive ``auroral'' emission line [N II] 5755 has been detected from the low density ionized gas along the sight line toward l = 130.0, b = -7.5 using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM). The intensity of this emission line, relative to the red nebular line [N II] 6584, is found to be twice that observed in bright, classical H II regions surrounding O stars. This implies that the electron temperature of the ionized gas along this sight line is about 2000 K higher than the H II regions, and that the enhanced [N II] 6584/H-Alpha and [S II] 6716/H-Alpha intensity ratios in this low density gas are due at least in part to an elevated temperature., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters

Recently completed H-Alpha surveys of large portions of the sky can be used to create maps of the free-free intensity distribution at high Galactic latitude that are independent of the spectral fits to the CMB data. This provides an opportunity to test the accuracy of the spectral fitting procedures and to search for other sources of Galactic forground contamination that could be confused spectrally with the free-free, such as spinning dust grains. The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) survey has sampled the sky north of declination -30 deg at about one degree angular resolution and has revealed that, except for a few isolated regions of enhanced emission, \Delta T_{ff} (30 GHz) < 30 micro-K at Galactic latitudes near 15 deg, decreasing to \Delta T_{ff} (30 GHz) < 4 mircro-K at latitudes above 50 deg. Also in progress are H-Alpha surveys that sample the sky at higher angular resolution., Comment: 10 pages, 6 Figures; Presented at IAU Symposium #201, to be published in PASP; for more information and higher quality figures, see http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/

The interstellar medium (ISM) can be thought of as the galactic atmosphere which fills the space between stars. When clouds within the ISM collapse, stars are born. When the stars die, they return their matter to the surrounding gas. Therefore the ISM plays a vital role in galactic evolution. The medium includes starlight, gas, dust, planets, comets, asteroids, fast moving charged particles (cosmic rays) and magnetic fields. The gas can be further divided into hot, warm and cold components, each of which appear to exist over a range of densities, and therefore pressures. Remarkably, the diverse gas components, cosmic rays, magnetic fields and starlight all have very roughly the same energy density of about 1 eV cm$^{-3}$. All the major constituents (or phases) of the interstellar medium appear to be identified now, although complete multi-phase studies are extremely difficult beyond a few thousand parsecs from the Sun. The interstellar medium is a highly complex environment which does not lend itself to simple analysis. However, this has not stopped astrophysicists from producing basic models of the ISM in order to make sense of the great wealth of data coming in from ground-based telescopes and from satellites., Comment: 8 pages of text, 6 figures; Encyclopaedia of Astronomy & Astrophysics, MacMillan and Institute of Physics Publishing, to appear Sept 2000

A Cosmic Far-InfraRed Background (CFIRB) has long been predicted that would traces the intial phases of galaxy formation. It has been first detected by Puget et al.(1996) using COBE data and has been later confirmed by several recent studies (Fixsen et al. 1998, Hauser et al. 1998, Lagache et al. 1999). We will present a new determination of the CFIRB that uses for the first time, in addition to COBE data, two independent gas tracers: the HI survey of Leiden/Dwingeloo (hartmann, 1998) and the WHAM H$_{\alpha}$ survey (Reynolds et al 1998). We will see that the CFIRB above 100 micron is now very well constrained. The next step is to see if we can detect its fluctuations. To search for the CFIRB fluctuations, we have used the FIRBACK observations. FIRBACK is a deep cosmological survey conducted at 170 micron with ISOPHOT (Dole et al., 2000). We show that the emission of unresolved extra-galactic sources clearly dominates, at arcminute scales, the background fluctuations in the lowest galactic emission regions. This is the first detection of the CFIRB fluctuations., Comment: To appear in "ISO Surveys of a Dusty Universe", Workshop at Ringberg Castle, November 8 - 12, 1999

We derive the radio spectral index of the Barnard Loop (BL) from large-scale radio surveys at four frequencies and find it to be a thermal source. We use the radio data together with H-alpha data to determine the electron temperature in BL, the lambda-Ori HII region, and a high-latitude filament; all of these regions are somewhat cooler than typical HII regions. We perform least squares fits of the DIRBE diffuse IR intensities to the 21-cm line and radio continuum intensities. After the resolution of a ``geometrical conundrum'', this allows us to derive the electron density n_e; we find n_e ~ 2.0 cm^{-3} and pressure (P/k) ~ 24000 cm^{-3} K. Grains within BL are warmer than in HI regions. Trapped L-alpha accounts for the extra heating that is required. This is a general effect that needs to be accounted for in all analyses that examine IR emission from H^+ regions. Very small grains that emit 60 micron radiation are enhanced in BL relative to HI by a factor of 2-3, while PAH's that emit 12 micron are probably deficient by a factor ~2., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Astrophysical Journal

We have used the WHAM H_alpha survey and Leiden/Dwingeloo HI data to decompose the Far-infrared emission (from 100 to 1000 micron) at high Galactic latitude into components associated with the Warm Ionised Medium (WIM) and the Warm Neutral Medium (WNM). This decomposition is possible for the first time thanks to preliminary WHAM data that cover a significant fraction of the sky (about 10%). We confirm the first detection of dust emission from the WIM (Lagache et al. 1999) and show that the WIM dust temperature and emissivity are very similar to those in the WNM. The analysis suggests moreover that about 25% of the far-IR dust emission at high galactic latitude is uncorrelated with the HI gas. The decomposition again reveals a Cosmic Far-Infrared Background (CFIRB) which is determined for the first time from 100 to 1000 micron using two independant gas tracers., Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press

Spatial variations of the [S II]/H-Alpha and [N II]/H-Alpha line intensity ratios observed in the gaseous halo of the Milky Way and other galaxies are inconsistent with pure photoionization models. They appear to require a supplemental heating mechanism that increases the electron temperature at low densities n_e. This would imply that in addition to photoionization, which has a heating rate per unit volume proportional to n_e^2, there is another source of heat with a rate per unit volume proportional to a lower power of n_e. One possible mechanism is the dissipation of interstellar plasma turbulence, which according to Minter & Spangler (1997) heats the ionized interstellar medium in the Milky Way at a rate ~ 1x10^-25 n_e ergs cm^-3 s^-1. If such a source were present, it would dominate over photoionization heating in regions where n_e < 0.1 cm^-3, producing the observed increases in the [S II]/H-Alpha and [N II]/H-Alpha intensity ratios at large distances from the galactic midplane, as well as accounting for the constancy of [S II]/[N II], which is not explained by pure photoionization. Other supplemental heating sources, such as magnetic reconnection, cosmic rays, or photoelectric emission from small grains, could also account for these observations, provided they supply to the warm ionized medium ~ 10^-5 ergs s^-1 per cm^2 of Galactic disk., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

A large portion of the Galaxy (l = 123 deg to 164 deg, b = -6 deg to -35 deg), which samples regions of the Local (Orion) spiral arm and the more distant Perseus arm, has been mapped with the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) in the H-Alpha, [S II] 6716, and [N II] 6583 lines. Several trends noticed in emission-line investigations of diffuse gas in other galaxies are confirmed in the Milky Way and extended to much fainter emission. We find that the [S II]/H-Alpha and [N II]/H-Alpha ratios increase as absolute H-Alpha intensities decrease. For the more distant Perseus arm emission, the increase in these ratios is a strong function of Galactic latitude and thus, of height above the Galactic plane. The [S II]/[N II] ratio is relatively independent of H-Alpha intensity. Scatter in this ratio appears to be physically significant, and maps of it suggest regions with similar ratios are spatially correlated. The Perseus arm [S II]/[N II] ratio is systematically lower than Local emission by 10%-20%. With [S II]/[N II] fairly constant over a large range of H-Alpha intensities, the increase of [S II]/H-Alpha and [N II]/H-Alpha with |z| seems to reflect an increase in temperature. Such an interpretation allows us to estimate the temperature and ionization conditions in our large sample of observations. We find that WIM temperatures range from 6,000 K to 9,000 K with temperature increasing from bright to faint H-Alpha emission (low to high [S II]/H-Alpha and [N II]/H-Alpha) respectively. Changes in [S II]/[N II] appear to reflect changes in the local ionization conditions (e.g. the S+/S++ ratio). We also measure the electron scale height in the Perseus arm to be 1.0+/-0.1 kpc, confirming earlier, less accurate determinations., Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures. Figures 2 and 3 are full color--GIFs provided here, original PS figures at link below. Accepted for publication in ApJ. More information about the WHAM project can be found at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/ . REVISION: Figure 6, bottom panel now contains the proper points. No other changes have been made

The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) is a new facility dedicated to the study of faint optical emission lines from diffuse interstellar gas. During its first 18 months of operation, WHAM carried out a survey of the interstellar H-alpha emission associated with the warm, ionized component of the interstellar medium. The observations consisted of 37,000 spectra obtained with a one degree diameter beam on a 0.98 X 0.85 degree grid (lxb), covering the sky above declination -30 degrees. This survey provides for the first time a detailed picture of the distribution and kinematics of the diffuse ionized hydrogen through the H-alpha line comparable to surveys of the neutral hydrogen obtained through the 21 cm line. Preliminary reduction of the data from selected portions of the sky reveal that the interstellar H II has a complex distribution, with long filaments and loop-like structures extending to high Galactic latitudes and superposed on a more diffuse background. Apart from the H-alpha sky survey, WHAM has also detected for the first time faint diagnostic emission lines in selected directions, [O I] 6300, [O III] 5007, and He I 5876, which provide information about the physical state of the gas and clues about the source of the ionization. Maps of [S II] 6716 and [N II] 6584 over limited regions of the sky are providing information about variations in the temperature and ionization conditions within the Galactic disk, and the detection of faint optical emission lines from high velocity clouds is probing conditions in the halo., Comment: Latex, 12 pages, 4 figures. To be published in the proceedings of "New Perspectives in the Interstellar Medium" held in Naramata, BC, Canada; August 1998

The nature of turbulence in the warm ionized component of the interstellar medium (WIM) can be investigated using Fabry-Perot spectroscopy of optical emission lines. The H-alpha intensity provides the emission measure (EM) along a line of sight, which is used in conjunction with the scattering measure, rotation measure, and dispersion measure to study interstellar turbulence. Observations at high spectral resolution (10 km/s) allow measurements of the bulk radial velocity structure of the emitting gas and investigations of thermal and non-thermal (turbulent) broadening mechanisms through the line widths. By measuring the widths of the H-alpha line and an emission line from a heavier atom (e.g. the [S II] 6716 line), one can separate the thermal and non-thermal contributions to the line width. Preliminary studies using this method have shown that the broad range of H-alpha line widths (typically 15 - 50 km/s) is mostly due to differences in the non-thermal component of the width and that along many lines of sight this component dominates. The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) is in the process of producing a very sensitive kinematic map of the northern sky in H-alpha at one degree angular resolution and 12 km/s spectral resolution. WHAM is also mapping emission lines from heavier atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen for selected regions of the sky. This data set will provide unique new information concerning turbulence in the WIM., Comment: Latex, 7 pages, 4 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of the 2nd Guillermo Haro Conference on Interstellar Turbulence held in Puebla, MX

Optical emission lines provide an important new window on the HVCs. Recent studies of the H-alpha line reveal that ionized gas is pervasively associated with the neutral hydrogen in HVCs. The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) instrument has so far detected H-alpha from high-velocity clouds in the M, A, and C complexes. We find a close spatial correspondence between the neutral and ionized portions of the HVCs with some evidence that the ionized gas envelopes the neutral part of the clouds. The velocities of the H-alpha and 21-cm detections are well correlated, but the intensities are not. If the clouds are photoionized, the H-alpha intensity is a direct measure of the Lyman continuum flux in the Galactic halo. Forthcoming observations of the H-alpha line in combination with other emission lines will give new insights into the high-velocity cloud phenomena and will also probe the physical conditions of their environment., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. To be published in the Proceedings of the Stromlo Workshop on High Velocity Clouds, eds. B. K. Gibson and M. E. Putnam (ASP Conf. Series)

We present observations of the (field of the) Seyfert galaxy Mark290, which probes the high-velocity cloud (HVC) complex C, one of the largest HVCs. We find that this object has a metallicity of 0.094pm0.020(+0.022-0.019) times solar. We determine a lower limit to its distance of 5 kpc (z>3.5 kpc). If the gas is in thermal equilibrium with a hot halo, then it is also likely that D<30 kpc, putting the HVC in the Galactic Halo, as was the case for HVC complex~A (for which z=2.5--7 kpc). We find that, on this sightline, H+ represents 23pm10% of the hydrogen in the HVC. The total gaseous mass is 2x10^6 (D/5 kpc)^2 Msun and, depending on whether the space velocity is completely radial or vertical, the HVC represents a downward mass flux of ~0.036-0.083 (D/5 kpc) Msun/yr, or 2.9--6.7x10^{-3} (D/5 kpc)^{-1} Msun/yr/kpc^2. The low metallicity and large mass suggest that complex C is unlikely to be part of a Galactic Fountain, but rather represents accreting low-metallicity material. It may be a present-day analogue of the damped Ly-alpha absorbers seen in QSO spectra. Our abundance result provides the first direct observational evidence for the infall of low-metallicity gas on the Milky Way, required in models of galactic chemical evolution. It remains to be seen whether ultimately complex C is a remnant of the formation of the Milky Way (Oort 1970), a gas cloud orbiting the Galaxy (Kerr & Sullivan 1969), a Local Group object (Verschuur 1969, Blitz et al. 1996), the result of tidal interactions between the Magellanic System and the Galaxy >3 Gyr ago (an "Old Magellanic Stream"; Toomre, quoted in Kerr & Sullivan 1969), or was formed when hot, ionized intergalactic gas was compressed by the motion of the Milky Way (Silk et al. 1987)., Comment: 13 pages; LaTeX; to be published in: Proceedings of the High-Velocity Cloud workshop, eds. B.K. Gibson, T.S. Axelrod and M.E. Putman (ASP Conf. Ser.)

The first observations of the recently completed Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) facility include a study of emission lines from high velocity clouds in the M, A, and C complexes, with most of the observations on the M I cloud. We present results including clear detections of H-alpha emission from all three complexes with intensities ranging from 0.06 R to 0.20 R. In every observed direction where there is significant high velocity H I gas seen in the 21 cm line we have found associated ionized hydrogen emitting the H-alpha line. The velocities of the H-alpha and 21 cm emission are well correlated in every case except one, but the intensities are not correlated. There is some evidence that the ionized gas producing the H-alpha emission envelopes the 21 cm emitting neutral gas but the H-alpha "halo", if present, is not large. If the H-alpha emission arises from the photoionization of the H I clouds, then the implied Lyman continuum flux F_{LC} at the location of the clouds ranges from 1.3 to 4.2 x 10^5 photons cm^{-2} s^{-1}. If, on the other hand, the ionization is due to a shock arising from the collision of the high-velocity gas with an ambient medium in the halo, then the density of the pre-shocked gas can be constrained. We have also detected the [S II] 6716 angstrom line from the M I cloud and have evidence that the [S II] to H-alpha ratio varies with location on the cloud., Comment: 32 pages, 18 figures, to appear in ApJ (Sept. 10, 1998)

During the initial data reduction of the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) H-Alpha Sky Survey, we have discovered several very long (~30--80 deg) filaments superimposed on the diffuse H-Alpha background. These features have no clear correspondence to the other phases of the interstellar medium revealed by 21 cm, X-ray, IR, or radio continuum surveys, and they have no readily identifiable origin or source of ionization. In this letter, the data for two of these faint (I_{H-Alpha} = 0.5--1.5 R) structures are presented. The first is an 80 deg-long, 2 deg-wide arch that extends nearly perpendicular to the Galactic plane at l = 225 deg and attains a maximum latitude of +51 deg near l = 240 deg. Where this feature appears to meet the Galactic plane near l = 225 deg, it is directly above the H II region surrounding CMa R1/OB1. A second filament consists of a ~25--30 deg-long arc spanning l = 210--240 deg at b = +30 deg to +40 deg. Both features have measurable velocity trends with position. However, they have rather constant intensities along their entire lengths, ranging from 0.5--1.5 R (EM = 1--3 cm^{-6} pc) with no obvious trends., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; Figure 1 is full color PostScript. Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters. More information on the WHAM project can be found at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/