ATNF Basement Meeting Room

Dr T. Joseph W. Lazio

Acceleration, Propagation, Turbulence, and Seeing: The Many Roles of the Interstellar Medium - Dr T. Joseph W. Lazio Colloquium

The Galactic interstellar medium contains an ionized component visible
through pulsar dispersion measures and faint optical emission lines.
The Galactic distribution of this interstellar plasma can be used to
trace energy input into the interstellar medium and may serve as a
tracer of cosmic ray acceleration and trapping. It also has
observational implications for pulsar searches and very long baseline
interferometery. We describe recent improvements in mapping the
Galactic distribution of the interstellar plasma and present a new
model for its distribution.