Bright prospects: Comparing the H Survey with large-scale radio continuum emission

Introduction

It has long been known that radio continuum emission is a tracer of star formation in galaxies, both on global (i.e. galaxy wide) scales and on the relatively local scales of individual star-forming regions (e.g. Day, Caswell & Cooke 1972; Klein 1982). Indeed, in our own galaxy, HII and star forming regions (such as the Orion and  Car complexes) are some of the brightest sources of radio emission.

In addition to radio continuum emission, H emission is also produced by these regions of hot, ionised gas. Both the Parkes 2.4 GHz survey (Duncan et al. 1995; 1997b) and the AAO/UKST H survey (Phillips, Parker & Mashedar 1997) are very sensitive to these thermal emissions. Preliminary comparisons of the two surveys show that they will detect many objects and structures in common. As such, the Parkes survey is complementary to the H imaging now being undertaken, and detailed comparisons of the two should prove very worthwhile.

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997