Hydrostatic Models of Molecular Clouds

Abstract

It is customary to convert observed brightness temperatures of molecular lines to molecular column densities by assuming some excitation temperature to describe the population of the energy levels of the molecule. Observers often speak about “abundances” after dividing these column densities by the dimension of the cloud that is being studied. This procedure can be misleading because the level populations are usually not well characterized by one single excitation temperature and because clouds are probably quite centrally condensed. Some molecules are formed preferentially at high densities in the opaque cores of clouds, others reach their maximum abundance in the moderately shielded much less dense outer regions of clouds.