Alex Hill (University of Wisconsin)

Warm ionized gas in the Galaxy - Alex Hill Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The warm ionized medium (WIM) is a major component of the interstellar medium of galaxies, with much of the H^+ mass in the Milky Way located hundreds of parsecs from the OB stars that ionize it. In this talk, I will preview early results from the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) Southern Sky Survey, which will soon complete the first all-sky, kinematically-resolved survey of H-alpha emission. The combination of WHAM data with numerical simulations of turbulence and a photoionization radiative transfer code are providing new insights into the physical conditions and ionization mechanisms of warm ionized gas in both the disk and halo of the Galaxy.