Intensive Spectroscopic Monitoring of NGC 5548 with HST, IUE, and Ground-Based Telescopes

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Session 64 -- Low Luminosity AGNs and Active Galaxies
Oral presentation, Thursday, 2, 1994, 10:00-11:30

[64.06] Intensive Spectroscopic Monitoring of NGC 5548 with HST, IUE, and Ground-Based Telescopes

B.M.Peterson (OSU), D.Alloin (Meudon), P.Barr, J.Clavel (ESTEC), R.D.Cohen (UCSD), D.M.Crenshaw (CSC), I.N.Evans, A.P.Koratkar, K.T.Korista (STScI), K.Horne (Utrecht), G.A.Kriss, J.H.Krolik (JHU), M.A.Malkan (UCLA), S.L.Morris (DAO), H.Netzer (Tel-Aviv), P.T.O'Brien (Oxford), G.A.Reichert (USRA), P.M.Rodr\'{\i}guez-Pascual, W.Wamsteker (VILSPA), on behalf of the International AGN Watch

We present the results of a combined HST/IUE/ground-based spectroscopic monitoring campaign on the Seyfert~1 galaxy NGC~5548 that was undertaken in order to address questions that require both high temporal resolution (one day) and high signal-to-noise ratios. We find (1) that the ultraviolet and optical continuum variations are virtually simultaneous, (2) that the He\,{\sc ii} \,$\lambda1640$ emission-line variations lag behind the continuum variations by somewhat less than 2 days, and (3) the velocity field of the C\,{\sc iv}-emitting region is not dominated by radial motion, although we find some indication that the emission-line wings ($\left| \Delta v \right| \geq 3000$\,km\,s$^{-1}$) respond to continuum variations slightly more rapidly than does the core, which is qualitatively what is expected for a virialized cloud system.

We are pleased to acknowledge support of the space-based component of this project by NASA through grants NAG5-1824 and STScI grant GO-3484.01-91A. Support for the ground-based observations by NSF through several grants (including AST-9112870 to OSU) is also gratefully acknowledged.

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