The warm ionized medium (WIM) outside classical H II regions is a fundamental gas-phase constituent of the Milky Way and other late-type spiral galaxies, and is traced by faint emission lines at optical wavelengths. We calculate the photoionization models of the WIM in the Galaxy by a stellar UV radiation with the effective temperature 35,000 K assuming not only spherical geometry but also plane parallel geometry, and compare the results with the observed emission line ratios. We also show the dependence of the emission line ratios on various gas-phase abundances. The emergent emission-line ratios are in agreement with the average-values of observed ratios of [S II] λ6716/Hα, [N II] λ6583/Hα, [O I] λ6300/Hα, [O III] λ5007/Hα, He I λ5876/Hα. However, their extreme values could not be explained with the photoionization models. It is also shown that the addition of all stellar radiation from the OB stars in the Hipparcos stellar catalog resembles that of an O7-O8 type star.

• 선광일(한국천문연구원) | KWANG-IL SEON (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)