An atlas of high resolution (⋋/Δ⋋=45,000) profiles of interstellar atomic lines of K I (7665, 7699 Å), Na I (D 1, D2), Ca II (H, K), Ca I (4227 Å), molecular structures of CH, CH+, CN and the major diffuse interstellar bands at 5780 and 5797 Å based on ~300 echelle spectra of ~200 OB stars is presented. Relationships between the reddenings, distances and equivalent widths of NaI, CaII, KI, CH, CH+, CN and diffuse bands are discussed. The equivalent width of K I (7699 Å) as well as of CH4300 Å' / correlate very tightly with E(B- V) in contrast to the features of neutral sodium, ionized calcium and the molecular ion CH+. The equivalent widths of the Hand K lines of Call grow with distance at a rate ~250mÅ per 1 kpc. A similar relation for NaI is much less tight. The strengths of neutral potassium lines, molecular features and diffuse interstellar bands do not correlate practically with distance. These facts suggest that ionized calcium fills the interstellar space quite homogeneously while the other carriers mentioned above, especially K I, CH and these of diffuse bands occupy more and more compact volumes, also filled with dust grains. Apparently the carriers of narrow diffuse bands are spatially correlated with simple molecules and dust grains - all abundant in the so-called 'zeta' type clouds. The same environment seems to be hostile to the carriers of broad diffuse interstellar bands (DIEs) (like 5780 or 6284) and -to a certain extent - also to CaII, NaI and CH+.

The FIMS (Far-ultraviolet IMaging Spectrograph; also known as SPEAR, Spectroscopy of Plasma Evolution from Astrophysical Radiation) is the primary payload of the STSAT-1, the first Korean science satellite, which was launched in September, 2003. The FIMS performs spectral imaging of diffuse far-ultraviolet emission with the unprecedented wide field of view and the relatively good spectral resolution. We present far-ultraviolet spectral observations of highly ionized interstellar medium including supernova remnants, superbubbles, soft X-ray shadows, and the molecular hydrogen fluorescent emission lines. The FIMS has detected He II, C III, 0 III, O IV, Si IV, O VI, and H2 fluorescent emission lines. The emission lines arise in shocked or thermally heated and in photo-ionized gases. We present an overview of the FIMS instrument and its initial observational results.

The main sources of interstellar dust are believed to be dust envelopes around AGB stars. The outflowing envelopes around the long period pulsating variables are very suitable place for massive dust formation. Oxygen-rich silicate dust grains or carbon-rich dust grains form in the envelopes around AGB stars depending on the chemical composition of the stellar surface. The dust grains expelled from AGB stars get mixed up and go through some physical and chemical changes in interstellar medium. There are similarities and differences between interstellar dust and dust grains in AGB stars. The mass cycle in the Galaxy may be best manifested by the fact that the dust grains at various regions have many similarities and understandable differences.

We perform numerical experiments on supernova-driven turbulent flows in order to see whether or not supernovae playa major role in driving turbulence in the interstellar medium. In a (200pc)3 computational box, we set up, as initial conditions, uniformly magnetized gas distributions with different pairs of hydrogen number densities and magnetic field strengths, which cover the observed values in the Galactic midplane. We then explode supernovae at randomly chosen positions at a Galactic explosion rate and follow up the evolution of the supernova-driven turbulent flows by integrating numerically the ideal MHD equations with cooling and heating terms. From the numerical experiments we find that the density-weighted velocity dispersions of the flows are in the range of 5-10 km s-l, which are consistent with the observed velocity dispersions of cold and warm neutral media. Additionally, we find that strong compressible flows driven by supernova explosions quickly change into solenoidal flows.

We present the results of an H I aperture synthesis mosaic of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), made by combining data from 1344 separate pointing centers using the Australia Telescope Compact' Array (ATCA) and the Parkes multibeam receiver. The resolution of the mosaiced images is 50" (<15 pc, using a distance to the LMC of 55kpc). This mosaic, with a spatial resolution .15 times higher than that which had been previously obtained, emphasises the turbulent and fractal structure of the ISM on the small scale, resulting from the dynamical feedback of the star formation processes with the ISM. We also have done a widefield panoramic survey of Hα emission from the Magellanic Clouds with an imager mounted on the 16-inch telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. This survey produced Hα images which are equal to the ATCA survey in area coverage and resolution. This survey allows us to produce a continuum-subtracted image of the entire LMC. In contrast with its appearance in the Hα image, the LMC is remarkably symmetric in H I on the largest scales, with the bulk of the H I residing in a disk of diameter 8. ̊4 (7.3 kpc) and a spiral structure is clearly seen. The structure of the neutral atomic ISM in the LMC is dominated by H I filaments combined with numerous shells and holes.

We have estimated the fractal dimension of the molecular clouds in the Antigalactic Center based on the 12CO (J = 1- 0) and 13CO (J = 1- 0) database obtained using the 14m telescope at Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. Using a developed code within IRAF, we were able to identify slice-clouds, and determined the dispersions of two spatial coordinates as well as perimeters and areas. The fractal dimension of the target region was estimated to be D = 1.34 for low resolution 12CO (J = 1 - 0) database, and D = 1.4 for higher resolution 12CO (J = 1 - 0) and 13CO (J = 1 - 0) database, where P ∝ AD/2. The sampling rate (spatial resolution) of observed data must be an important parameter when estimating fractal dimension. Our database with higher resolution of 1 arcminute, which is corresponding to 0.2 pc at a distance of 1.1 kpc, gives us the same estimate of fractal dimension to that of local dark clouds. Fractal dimension is apparently invariant when varying the threshold temperatures applied to cloud identification. According to the dispersion pattern of longitudes and latitudes of identified slice-clouds, there is no preference of elongation direction.

We study the properties of supernova (SN) driven interstellar turbulence with a numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. Calculations were done using the RIEMANN framework for MHD, which is highly suited for astrophysical flows because it tracks shocks using a Riemann solver and ensures pressure positivity and a divergence-free magnetic field. We start our simulations with a uniform density threaded by a uniform magnetic field. A simplified radiative cooling curve and a constant heating rate are also included. In this radiatively-cooling magnetized medium, we explode SNe one at a time at randomly chosen positions with SN explosion rates equal to and 12 times higher than the Galactic value. The evolution of the system is basically determined by the input energy of SN explosions and the output energy of radiative cooling. We follow the simulations to the point where the total energy of the system, as well as thermal, kinetic, and magnetic energy individually, has reached a quasi-stationary value. From the numerical experiments, we find that: i) both thermal and dynamical processes are important in determining the phases of the interstellar medium, and ii) the power index n of the B-p n relation is consistent with observed values.

Strong thermal X-ray emission, called Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission, is observed along the Galactic plane (Koyama et al. 1986). The origin of hot (~7 keV) component of GRXE is not known, while cool (~0.8 keV) one is associated with supernovae (Kaneda et al. 1997, Sugizaki et al. 2001). We propose a possible mechanism to explain the origin; locally strong magnetic fields of Blocal ~30 μG heat interstellar gas to ~7 keV via magnetic reconnection (Tanuma et al. 1999). There will be the small-scale (< 10 pc) strong magnetic fields, which can be observed as (B)obs ~3 μG by integration of Faraday Rotation Measure, if it is localized by a volume filling factor of f ~ 0.1. In order to examine this model, we solved three-dimensional (3D) resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations numerically to examine the magnetic reconnect ion triggered by a supernova shock (fig.l). We assume that the magnetic field is Bx = 30tanh(y/20pc) μG, By = Bz = 0, and the temperature is uniform, at the initial condition. We put a supernova explosion outside the current sheet. The supernova-shock, as a result, triggers the magnetic reconnect ion, and the gas is heatd to > 7 keV. The magnetic reconnect ion heats the interstellar gas to ~7 keV in the Galactic plane, if it occurs in the locally strong magnetic fields of Blocal ~30 μG. The heated plasma is confined by the magnetic field for ~10 5.5 yr. The required interval of the magnetic reconnect ions (triggered by anything) is ~1 - 10 yr. The magnetic reconnect ion will explain the origin of X-rays from the Galactic ridge, furthermore the Galactic halo, and clusters of galaxies.

We present a code which identifies individual clouds in crowded region using IMFORT interface within Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF). We define a cloud as an object composed of all pixels in longitude, latitude, and velocity that are simply connected and that lie above some threshold temperature. The code searches the whole pixels of the data cube in efficient way to isolate individual clouds. Along with identification of clouds it is designed to estimate their mean values of longitudes, latitudes, and velocities. In addition, a function of generating individual images (or cube data) of identified clouds is added up. We also present identified individual clouds using a 12CO survey data cube of Galactic Anticenter Region (Lee et al. 1997) as a test example. We used a threshold temperature of 5σ 5σ rms noise level of the data With a higher threshold temperature, we isolated subclouds of a huge cloud identified originally. As the most important parameter to identify clouds is the threshold value, its effect to the size and velocity dispersion is discussed rigorously.

We report the results of H I 21-cm and molecular line studies of the shocked interstellar gas in the W51 complex. We present convincing evidences suggesting that the shocked gas has been produced by the interaction of the W51C supernova remant (SNR) with a large molecular cloud, Our results show that W51C is the second SNR with direct evidences for the shocked cloud material.

We present the results of an rocket-borne observation of far-infrared [CII] line at 157.7 μm from the diffuse inter-stellar medium in the Ursa Major. We also introduce a part of results on the [CII] emission recently obtained by the IRTS, a liquid-helium cooled 15cm telescope onboard the Space Flyer Unit. From the rocket-borne observation we obtained the cooling rate of the diffuse HI gas due to the [CII] line emission, which is 1.3±0.2 × 10-26 ergss-1 H-1atom. We also observed appreciable [CII] emission from the molecular clouds, with average CII/CO intensity ratio of 420. The IRTS observation provided the [CII] line emission distribution over large area of the sky along great circles crossing the Galactic plane at I = 50° and I = 230°. We found two components in their intensity distributions, one concentrates on the Galactic plane and the another extends over at least 20° in Galactic latitude. We ascribe one component to the emission from the Galactic disk, and the another one to the emission from the local interstellar gas. The [CII] cooling rate of the latter component is 5.6 ± 2.2 ×10.

We have searched for the 2 mm transitions of H 2 C O H + ( 2 02 − 1 01 ) and H 2 13 C O ( 2 02 − 1 01 , 2 12 − 1 11 , a n d 2 11 − 1 10 ) toward the dense interstellar molecular clouds Orion A, TMC-1 and L134N using the FCRAO 14 m telescope. None of the transitions have been detected except the H 2 13 C O transitions toward Orion-KL. We set upper limits for the abundances of the protonated formaldehyde ion ( H 2 C O H + ) , which are close to the abundances expected from ion-molecule chemistry.