ISO spectroscopy of compact HII regions in the Galaxy^*

I. The catalogue

¹ SRON-Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
² Kapteyn Institute, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
³ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS & Univ. de Provence, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
⁴ Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Bât. 121, Université de Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France
⁵ Department of Astronomy, 475 North Charter Street, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
⁶ ISO Data Centre, Astrophysics Division, ESA, Villafranca, Spain
⁷ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14, Av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France

Corresponding author: E. Peeters, peeters@astro.rug.nl

Received: 3 August 2001
Accepted: 19 October 2001

Abstract

Infrared spectra between 2.3 and 196  were taken towards a sample of 45 compact HII regions using the two spectrometers (SWS and LWS) on board ISO. The primary goal is to determine the distribution of element abundances in the Galaxy, although there are also many other uses of this database. The spectra contain a wealth of information on the ionized gas and the associated photodissociation regions through the atomic fine-structure lines and on the dust properties via the dust emission bands and the continuum. Significant variations are found from source to source in both spectral shape and content. The sample of HII regions spans a wide range in galactocentric distance (from 0 to 22 kpc) enabling to investigate the variations of the nebular properties across the Galactic plane. The observations and the data reduction are described in detail in the present paper. The ISO spectral catalogue of compact HII regions contains the combined SWS-LWS spectra for each of the sources, the fluxes of the atomic fine-structure lines and hydrogen recombination lines, and an inventory of the spectra in terms of molecular lines, dust and ice bands.