AAS 195th Meeting, January 2000
Session 73. ISM: Molecular Gas
Display, Friday, January 14, 2000, 9:20am-6:30pm, Grand Hall

## [73.06] A Survey of High-Latitude Molecular Gas

L. Magnani (University of Georgia), D. Hartmann (University of Bonn), P. Thaddeus (Harvard/CfA)

Nearly one-half of the southern Galactic hemisphere at b \le -30\circ was surveyed in the CO(1-0) emission line to determine the distribution of molecular gas at high Galactic latitudes and to find new molecular clouds. The sampling was done on a locally-Cartesian grid with 1\circ (true-angle) spacing in Galactic longitude and latitude. Of the 11,478 points in the grid, the 4982 which rise above an elevation of 30\circ in Cambridge, MA, the site of the 1.2 m millimeter-wave telescope used for the survey, were observed to an rms of TA* ~0.1 K. We found 144 distinct CO(1-0) emission lines along 134 lines of sight. Of these molecular detections, 55 are new and 79 are associated with 26 previously-cataloged high-latitude molecular clouds situated within the survey boundaries. Adopting as the W(CO) to N(H2) conversion factor the value 1.0 \times 1020 cm-2 [K km s-1]-1, the mass surface density of molecular gas in the region of the survey is ~ 0.1 M\odot pc-2.

L.M. acknowledges partial support from NASA grants NAG5-3433 and NAG5-8376.