| Description |
Star formation activity throughout the Galactic disk depends on the thermal and dynamical state of the interstellar gas, which in turn depends on heating and cooling rates, modulated by the gravitational potential and shock and turbulent pressures. Molecular cloud formation, and thus the star formation, may be regulated by pressures in the interstellar medium (ISM). To understand these processes we need information about the properties of the diffuse atomic and diffuse molecular gas clouds, and Photon Dominated Regions (PDR). An important tracer of these regions is the CII line at 158 microns (1900.5 GHz). We propose a pencil-beam survey of CII with HIFI band 7b, based on deep integrations and systematic sparse sampling of the Galactic disk plus selected targets, totaling over 900 lines of sight. We will detect both emission and, against the bright inner Galaxy and selected continuum sources, absorption lines. These spectra will provide the astronomical community with a large rich statistical database of the diffuse cloud properties throughout the Galaxy for understanding the Milky Way ISM and, by extension, other galaxies. It will be extremely valuable for determining the properties of the atomic gas, the role of barometric pressure and turbulence in cloud evolution, and the properties of the interface between the atomic and molecular clouds. The CII line is one of the major ISM cooling lines and is present throughout the Galactic plane. It is the strongest far-IR emission line in the Galaxy, with a total luminosity about a 1000 times that of the CO J=1-0 line. Combined with other data, it can be used to determine density, pressure, and radiation environment in gas clouds, and PDRs, and their dynamics via velocity fields. HSO is the best opportunity over the next several years to probe the ISM in this tracer and will provide a template for large-scale surveys with dedicated small telescopes and future surveys of other important ISM tracers. |
