[Previous] | [Session 50] | [Next]
S. J. Gibson, J. M. Stil (U. Calgary)
The global distribution of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) is a sensitive probe of Galactic structure. Single dish 21cm studies have revealed large-scale phenomena like the Galactic warp and the flaring of the HI disk, but limited angular resolution has prevented the examination of features smaller than a few hundred parsecs in the outer parts of the disk.
We are conducting a new investigation of the structure of the Galactic disk using 21cm synthesis data from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. The CGPS resolution of ~ 1 arcminute permits a much more detailed examination of Galactic HI structure. We use this resolution to define the HI midplane as a surface in (l,b,v) space with the full precision allowed by the CGPS data. This determination allows us to extract high-resolution longitude-velocity diagrams passing through the true midplane of the Galaxy and at fixed angles offset from it. Applications of our results include the study of new small-scale features of Galactic structure, kinematics of HI clouds in the disk potential, and establishing the context of HI absorption features used to probe neutral gas properties.
This work is supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/himp. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gibson@ras.ucalgary.ca
[Previous] | [Session 50] | [Next]
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.