The optical emission-line background and accompanying emissions at ultraviolet, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths

Abstract

High-latitude H-alpha line data and the resulting predicted intensities of the associated FUV and millimeter continuum emissions and the IR lines are presented. The emissions predicted account for all of the diffuse forbidden N II FIR line emission at high latitudes, about 20 percent of the observed FUV continuum, and about 1- exp -6 to 10 exp -5 of the microwave background near the peak of the 2.73 K blackbody spectrum, where the free-free intensity is comparable to that of the synchrotron and thermal dust emission. The angular structure in the Ha-alpha background implies the existence of high-altitude features with intensities about a factor of 2 above these average values.