Hot Cores in the submm - obscured by dust?

We present APEX observations of HCN (9-8) and (4-3) lines toward a sample of hot cores. The spectral shapes of the main transitions are asymmetric and self-absorbed, as expected for high optical depth in a possibly infalling envelope. For spherical symmetry, the large column densities of these sources would mean that the central region is obscured by dust above a certain frequency. However, we detected the vibrationally excited satellite lines (v_2=1; J=9-8) at 797 GHz, which originate from the inner regions. This indicates that high-frequency ALMA observations of hot core centers will be feasible.
Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in "Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics" Conference Proceedings (to be published by Springer "Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS)")