A cross section of the northern Corona Australis filament according to the different tracers. Maps are shown for the visual extinction derived from the reddening of the background stars (frame a, 40″ resolution), the 250 μm surface brightness (frame b, 18″ resolution), the column density derived from the Herschel data (frame c, 40″ resolution), and the intensity of the scattered light in the K_s band (frame d, 4″ resolution). For the plot the data have been adjusted so that the median signal is zero within the reference area located in the northern end of the maps (see text). The dashed rectangle in frame d denotes the area that will be used to measure the filament profile.