Description
We report observations of atomic carbon (C I [^3^P - ^3^P_0_]) for a sample of 49 southern hemisphere H II regions using the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory. The sources are compact and isolated members of the Wilson et al. (1970) H109{alpha} radio recombination line (RRL) catalog. The fourth Galactic quadrant is well covered by the sample. Atomic carbon emission is detected toward all of the regions, with multiple C I emission components found toward most sources. The RRL velocity is used to identify the C I emission associated with the H II region. We measure the mean velocity difference between the C I and RRL emission to be 0.8{+/-}2.8 km s^-1^. Within the measurement errors this is exact agreement in velocity; we conclude that all H II regions have associated C I emission. The mean C I line temperature of these components is 2.4{+/-}1.8 K, compared with 0.7{+/-}0.7 K for the C I emission components not associated with the H II region. This suggests that C I intensity is dominated by local heating. The FWHM line width of C I gas associated with H II regions also is marginally greater than that found for unassociated gas (6.7{+/-}3.0, compared with 4.8{+/-}2.4 km s-1).
|