Student Projects

Naomi McClure-Griffiths

Large Projects

High Velocity Clouds and the Galactic All Sky-Survey

The Galactic All Sky
Survey (GASS) is a survey of the Galactic atomic hydrogen (HI) emission
over the entire sky south of declination zero. When complete, the survey,
which is being conducted with the href="http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au">Parkes 64m Radio Telescope, will
be the highest resolution and most sensitive survey of Galactic hydrogen
conducted to date. One of the goals of GASS is to study the orign, nature
and distribution of high and intermediate velocity clouds surrounding the
Milky Way. GASS, because of its spatial and spectral resolution will excel
in this pursuit. This project will involve close collaborations with
D.J. Pisano (NRAO-Green Bank) and T. Murphy (U of Sydney).

H I dynamics near the Galactic Centre

The Southern Galactic
Plane Survey is a survey the neutral hydrogen (HI) component of the
plane of our Galaxy. Using the href="http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au">Parkes 64m Radio Telescope and
the Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA) we have produced an atlas of H I in
the fourth quadrant of the Galactic plane with sensitivity to spatial scales
larger than 1 arcminute. We have recently completed an expansion of the
survey, covering a large area around the around the Galactic Centre. The
Galactic Centre region has extreme dynamics and a variety of interesting
structures created by the rich environment of many H II
regions and supernova remnants. The dynamics of the H size=-1>I probe the Galactic bar, the "expanding arm", and the
molecular ring. However, the interrelation of these structures is poorly
understood. By comparing H I data from the SGPS, with
new CO data on the molecular ring from the Boston University Galactic Ring
Survey and infrared data from the Spitzer GLIMPSE survey with careful models
of the gas dynamics we may be able to understand how the innermost 3 kpc of
our Galaxy is structured.

Large Scale Motions in the Milky Way

Smaller Projects

Properties of Galactic Supernova Remnants

There are approximately 80 catalogued SNRs in the Southern Galactic
Plane Survey region, of which only 20 have previously determined distances.
Without distances to, and therefore radii of, these remnants it is difficult
to study their evolution, impact on the interstellar medium and distribution
within the Galaxy. One method for determining distances to these objects is
to use H I absorption spectra to derive kinematic
distances. The Southern Galactic Plane Survey, and its northern
counterparts, the Canadian and VLA Galactic Plane Surveys provide excellent
databases for determining and reconfirming distances to most Galactic SNRs.
We would aim to compile an extensive catalog of SNR distances with which to
proceed on studies of these interesting structures.