CO (3 – 2) HIGH-RESOLUTION SURVEY OF THE GALACTIC PLANE: R1

Abstract

We present the first release (R1) of data from the CO High-Resolution Survey (COHRS), which maps a strip of the inner Galactic plane in 12CO (J = 3 → 2). The data are taken using the Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, which has a 14 arcsec angular resolution at this frequency. When complete, this survey will cover |b| ⩽ 05 between 10° < l < 65°. This first release covers |b| ⩽ 05 between 1025 < l < 175 and 5025 < l < 5525, and |b| ⩽ 025 between 175 < l < 5025. The data are smoothed to a velocity resolution of 1 km s−1, a spatial resolution of 16 arcsec and achieve a mean rms of ∼1 K. COHRS data are available to the community online at http://dx.doi.org/10.11570/13.0002. In this paper we describe the data acquisition and reduction techniques used and present integrated intensity images and longitude–velocity maps. We also discuss the noise characteristics of the data. The high resolution is a powerful tool for morphological studies of bubbles and filaments while the velocity information shows the spiral arms and outflows. These data are intended to complement both existing and upcoming surveys, e.g., the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS), ATLASGAL, the Herschel Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL) and the JCMT Galactic Plane Survey with SCUBA-2 (JPS).