J/A+A/575/A79ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/575/A79doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.35750079CDSSchneider N.Ossenkopf V.Csengeri T.Klessen R.Federrath C.,Tremblin P.Girichidis P.Bontemps S.Andre P.2015-07-23T17:53:43Z2015-02-26T08:29:36ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frmolecular-cloudsmillimeter-astronomysubmillimeter-astronomyColumn-density maps of molecular clouds are one of the most important observables in the context of molecular cloud- and starformation (SF) studies. With the Herschel satellite it is now possible to precisely determine the column density from dust emission, which is the best tracer of the bulk of material in molecular clouds. However, line-of-sight (LOS) contamination from fore- or background clouds can lead to overestimating the dust emission of molecular clouds, in particular for distant clouds. This implies values that are too high for column density and mass, which can potentially lead to an incorrect physical interpretation of the column density probability distribution function (PDF). In this paper, we use observations and simulations to demonstrate how LOS contamination affects the PDF. We apply a first-order approximation (removing a constant level) to the molecular clouds of Auriga and Maddalena (low-mass star-forming), and Carina and NGC3603 (both high-mass SF regions).2015A&A...575A..79Shttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/575/A79CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/575/A79https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/575/A79http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/575/A79https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/575/A79https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/575/A79http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/575/A79GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/575/A79/list (List of FITS images)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/575/A79/list?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/575/A79/list?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/575/A79/list?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true64.6376537.642530.0055555555555555566/1263 22064 37924 38016https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/575/A79?format=asciiRadiodefaultJ/A+A/575/A79/listList of FITS imagesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintRAJ2000Right Ascension of center (J2000)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Declination of center (J2000)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainScale[6] Scale of the imagearcsec/pixinstr.scaleintNx[779/4015] Number of pixels along X-axismeta.numberintNy[594/4166] Number of pixels along Y-axismeta.numberintsize[1817/130688] Size of FITS fileKibytephys.size;meta.fitsintfitsDownload the FITS filemeta.ref.urlcharFileNameName of FITS file, in subdirectory fitsmeta.id;meta.fitscharTitleTitle of the filemeta.title;meta.filechar