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# Abstract

Eta Carinae: Reading the Legend
Mt. Rainier; 10.-13.July 2002
Editor: Bruce Balick

The Physical Structure of the Outer Ejecta and the Strings
Kerstin Weis111Feodor-Lynen-fellow, Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany and University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

## Abstract

The outer ejecta is part of the nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae. They are filamentary, shaped irregularly and larger than the Homunculus, the central bipolar nebula. While the Homuculus is mainly a reflection nebula, the outer ejecta is an emission structure. However, we showed with kinematic analysis that the outer ejecta (as the Homunculus) expands bi-directional despite of its complex morphology. Radial velocities in the outer ejecta reach up to 2000  km s-1 and give rise to X-ray emission. An analysis showing the distribution of the soft X-ray emission and its comparison to the optical emitting gas is presented here. X-ray maxima are found in areas in which the expansion velocities are highest. The temperature of 0.65 keV determined with the CHANDRA/ACIS data and thermal equilibrium models indicates post-shock velocities of 750  km s-1, about what was found in the spectra. In addition analysis of the new HST-STIS data from the Strings—long, highly collimated structures in the outer ejecta—are presented. The data show that the electron density of the Strings is of the order of 104 cm-3. The same value was detected for other structures in the outer ejecta. With this density String 1 has a mass of about 3 10-4 M$`_{}`$ and the total ejecta could be as massive as 0.5 M$`_{}`$.

## 1 The outer ejecta: Introduction and background

The first images of the nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae were made by Gaviola (1946, 1950) and Thackeray (1949, 1950). Gaviola named the nebula according to the geometry he identified at that time the Homunculus. It had a size of somewhat larger than 10′′. Nowadays we know that the Homunculus is highly symmetric—bipolar—and is larger. The Homunculus is only the central part of the nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae (e.g. Walborn 1976), which in total extends to a diameter of 60′′ (0.67 pc). While we still call the central bipolar structure the Homunculus, all outer filaments are combined into what is known as the outer ejecta. The sizes and morphology of structures in the outer ejecta are manifold. In contrary to the Homunculus is the outer ejecta not symmetric, nor is it a coherent object but consists out of quite a number of filaments, bullets or knots. Fig. 1 (left) shows an HST image taken with the F658N filter of the nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae. Besides the different morphology of the Homunculus and the outer ejecta, it illustrates also the large difference in brightness. Therefore the Homunculus is additionally plotted with contours. If instead we compare the kinematics of Homunculus and outer ejecta, they seem more alike. The Homuculus, according to his bipolarity expands with about 650  km s-1(Davidson & Humphreys 1997, Currie et al. 1996) and with the south-east lobe approaching and the north-west lobe receeding. The outer ejecta has on average similar velocities, the majority of the structures expanding with $`|v_{\mathrm{exp}}|`$ = 600  km s-1(e.g. Meaburn et al. 1996, Weis et al. 2001a). But note that a significant fraction of the filaments move much faster, they reach velocities as high as 2000  km s-1(Weis 2001a,b). So in velocity space nevertheless the outer ejecta are more ordered than expected from the morphology. In the south-eastern region most filaments are blueshifted, while in the north-west the clumps are redhifted, see right panel in Fig. 1. Compared to the movement of the Homunculus the expansion of the outer ejecta is along a very similar symmetry axis. As the Homunculus the outer ejecta has a bi-directional (bipolar) movement.

## 2 X-ray emission from the outer ejecta

As expected from the expansion velocities, the nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae is deteced in X-rays, as is the central object. Originally barely resolved with the EINSTEIN satellite (Chlebowski et al. 1984) the higher spatial resolution of ROSAT and CHANDRA makes it possible to better separate the emission of the nebula from that of the harder central source. Already with ROSAT it was found that the softer emission is roughly hook shaped (e.g. Corcoran et al. 1994, Weis et al. 2001) and agrees in its dimensions with the extension of the outer ejecta (Weis et al. 2001). The CHANDRA/ACIS data are so far the images with the highest spatial resolution and at the same time had decent spectral resolution. In Figure 2 (left) this image is shown color-coded with red is the soft emission and blue the hard emission. The central source—which might be slightly extended—is very hard and as known from other observations variable (e.g. Corcoran et al. 1995, Ishibashi et al. 1999, Weis et al. 2001). The emission which results from the outer ejecta is much softer and shows a hook shape, plus a bridge like connection which crosses the central object from the south-west end of the hook to the ridge in the north-east. This is best seen in the contours shown in Fig. 2 (right). Still with CHANDRAs higher resolution an overlay of the optical image and the X-ray emission (Fig. 2; right) shows only a few correlations between the optically emitting and the hot X-ray gas. While the dimensions of the outer ejecta in the optical and X-ray are roughly the same, individual knots rarely agree. One exception is the so called S condensation (Walborn 1976), here the brightest X-ray feature agrees with the bright optical filament. A much stronger conformance was found comparing the image with the radial expansion velocities. The expansion velocities are derived from our optical Echelle spectra (see Weis 2001a,b) and are plotted in Fig. 2 (right). We find that areas with higher X-ray emission, show in general higher expansion velocities, so the faster the gas is moving the more intense is the X-ray emission found in that region. Therefore we can explain the morphology of the extended soft X-ray emission from $`\eta `$ Carinae by shocks formed through the interaction of the faster moving filaments. Since CHANDRA/ACIS-S has good energy resolution we have the possibility to extracte spectra. A spectrum of the emission in connection with the outer ejecta was extracted and modelled. Using a one temperature, thermal equilibrium model (Mewe-Kaastra-Liehdal) and a fixed column density ($`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{N}_\mathrm{H}`$ 21.3), yielded already reasonable good fits to the data, with a temperature of $``$ 0.65 keV (Weis et al. 2002, Weis et al. in prep.). That indicates post-shock velocities of around 750  km s-1 and agrees quite well with the detected average expansion velocities. Besides the temperature, the nitrogen abundance was determined, which was possible because a very prominent nitrogen line at about 0.5 keV was visible in all spectra. In general the values indicate a roughly 6 times higher nitrogen abundance. A similar enhancement of Nitrogen was detected in optical spectra of the outer ejecta.

## 3 HST-STIS observations of the Strings—first results

The Strings are long, highly collimated structures that point nearly radially away from $`\eta `$ Carinae and emerge from the outer ejecta region that is closest to the Homunculus, partly that is the S ridge (Walborn 1976). The largest of all is String 1 (Fig. 3 with a total length 0.177 pc and a width of equal or less than 0.003 pc). String 4 (0.13 pc), String 3 (0.085 pc), String 5 (0.058 pc), and String 2 (0.044 pc) follow, all with similar width. For a detailed description of the basic parameters of the Strings see Weis et al. (1999). The Strings are nearly aligned with the long axis of the Homunculus and their radial velocity increases as the String move outwards. For String 1 this increase ranges from $`522`$ to about $`995`$ km s-1(Weis et al. 1999). Here I will discuss new results from a first analysis of the HST-STIS spectra taken of 4 of the Strings; due to the space limitation only the case of String 1 is discussed in detail.

We observed the Strings with the HST-STIS and the G750M first order grating and the 52 $`\times `$ 0.5 aperture. The slit was successfully aligned with each String. The spectra ranged from 6295 to 6867 Å. In all spectra the Strings are identified in emission in the following lines: \[N ii\] at 6548 Å and 6583 Å, Hα, He i at 6678 Å and both \[S ii\] lines at 6716 and 6731 Å. Figure 3 shows String 1 in these lines. This imaging-spectroscopic display of String 1 shows that the String is very homogeneous, is not subdivided and that there is no brighter structure at the front. The bullets originally believed to be the head of String 1 are visible and appear detached from the String—below the continuum of the star in Fig. 3 (right)—nevertheless they follow the linear velocity increase well. From these spectra it is obvious that the String is more of a steady flow rather than bullets along a chain. The origin of String 1 is sudden, within the southern part of the S ridge. It looks as it does not extend back into the Homunculus, see top of Fig. 3 right panel. The velocities determined from the STIS spectra range from $`290`$ km s-1 at the beginning to $`950`$ km s-1 further out. The slightly different values compared to Weis et al. (1999) result mainly because of the lower spectral resolution of STIS ($``$ 50  km s-1 compared to 14  km s-1) and as for the much lower starting value due to the better tracing of the string inwards giving the higher spatial resolution. We therefore trace the String longer than in our Echelle spectra. Also a split which was suggested to occur in String 1 (Weis et al. 1999) was confirmed with the STIS data, see Figs. 3. From the lines detected we derived line ratios for String 1, see table 1. The line ratios are very similar for string 2-4, the other Strings observed. Using the \[S ii\] line ratio and assuming a temperature of about 14 000 K (a typical value for the S ridge, Dufour et al. 1997) we obtain an electron density of about 1.2 104 cm-3. Since the ratio lies close to the high density limit this is more of a conservative lower limit and might be higher. The results agree well with electron densities in the outer ejecta (S ridge) determined by Dufour et al. (1997) using the Si iii\] lines. With the help of the electron density and kinematics of String 1 one can calculate the mass and determine the kinetic energy associated with the String. With an electron density of about 104 cm-3, which corresponds to a mass density $`\rho `$ of 1.6 10-23 kg cm-3 (using cosmic abundances) and a volume of the String of 3.7 1049 cm3, the mass $`M`$ of String 1 is about 3 10-4 M$`_{}`$ if it is completely filled. With a lower limit on the average expansion velocity of $`v`$450  km s-1 the total kinetic energy $`E=1/2Mv^2`$ is about 6 1043 ergs. Or using the cross section $`A`$ of the String and its density flow we can estimate the power in sense of a kinetic Luminosity $`L=1/2\rho v^2Av`$ which is about 1 L$`_{}`$. Several mechanism have been proposed to explain the Strings, like trails left by a bullet (Weis et al. 1999, Redman et al. 2002), shadowing effects (Soker 2001) or a steady gas flow (Weis et al. 1999) are only a few to name. The new STIS data show that the Strings are dense (but might be hollow) objects with 104 cm-3 and that there is no density contrast detected along the String which could give rise to a denser leading head. There still might be a density difference to much higher densities which we would not detect since we are close to the high density limit of the \[S ii\] line ratio. But this is unprobable since than at the same time the surface brightness should also increase in this denser knot, and this is not see in the spectra.

## 4 Summary and general remarks

The nebula around $`\eta `$ Carinae can be divided into two quite different parts, the Homunculus a bipolar reflection nebula about 0.2 pc across and the 0.67 pc large outer ejecta, a filamentary emission nebula. We have shown that the kinematics of the outer ejecta indicate that also this part of the nebula expands bi-directional, or bipolar. The symmetry axis is similar to that of the Homunculus.
Historically we know that $`\eta `$ Carinae und its nebula emit X-rays. With CHANDRAs unprecedented spatial resolution a very accurate comparison of the X-ray emission with the optical emission could be made. The X-ray emission is more homogeneous and smoother than the optical nebula, which is more of a accumulation of filaments, knots and bullets. While the sizes match, that is we find X-ray emission in regions were there is optical emission we barely find an agreement of individual knots, except for the S condensation. Comparing the intensity maxima of the X-ray emission with the velocities of the optical filaments yields a much better consensus. We conclude that in the case of $`\eta `$ Carinae’s outer ejecta the faster moving filaments are able to form stronger shocks and therefore stronger X-ray emission. The temperature of 0.65 keV indicates post-shock velocities of 750  km s-1, in agreement with the measurements.
From the new HST-STIS spectra of the Strings we obtain a first analysis of new parameters of the Strings. We can see that the Strings starts abruptly and does not extend back into the Homunculus. The slowest velocity of String 1 was denoted with $`290`$ km s-1. The fastest is similar to the previous measurements with about $`950`$ km s-1. We determined several line ratios for String 1, the most interesting of which is the \[S ii\] ratio, a density indicator. For String 1 this ratio is about 0.5 $`\pm `$ 0.1. Within the errors the ratio is steady along the String. The ratio is close—but clearly not always at—the high density limit of the line, so we still can determine an electron density of 104 cm-3. The density, as the line ratios in general are for all Strings alike. The Strings are more of a denser steady flow rather than ablating bullets, shadows or knots on chains. Since the HST-STIS spectra we have taken for the Strings also contain information of the immediate surrounding—that is the outer ejecta, mainly the S ridge and W Arc—we could also determine the density of several filaments in this region. Measurements in these spectra show that the filaments in the outer ejecta have a density of the order of 104 cm-3, thus about the same as the Strings. This value does not change significantly—at least in the regions which are covered by out HST-STIS observations. If we assume that all filaments in the outer ejecta have roughly this density, and take a reasonable filling factor for the knots in the ejecta of 1% within the total (0.67)3 pc3 volume of the outer ejecta, the total mass is at least 0.5 M$`_{}`$.

Acknowledgments: The author thanks Michael F. Corcoran and Kris Davidson for help and discussion on the CHANDRA data and Ted Gull for providing a much-better-than-pipeline HST-STIS data reduction and advice on technical aspects concerning these data. Special thanks go to Dominik Bomans for discussion on the subject and commending on the manuscript.

## References

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# ISO-LWS observations of C+ and O0 lines in absorption toward Sgr B21footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) with the participation of ISAS and NASA.

## 1 Introduction

Observations have suggested that, in some molecular clouds, most of the gas-phase oxygen might be in atomic form, in contradiction with predictions of steady state chemical models (e.g., Lee, Bettens & Herbst 1996) which yield CO, O, and O2 as the major oxygen bearing species in molecular clouds. First suggestions of a high atomic oxygen abundance were made by Jacq et al. (1990) and Schulz et al. (1991) in order to interpret their HDO observations of hot cores and quiescent clouds. These results are in accord with models which take into account cosmic-ray induced photo-dissociation (e.g., Jacq et al. 1990; Wannier et al. 1991). Further evidence has been obtained from observations of the \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m fine structure line which has been detected in absorption against the far-infrared continuum of bright galactic sources, namely: DR 21 (Poglitsch et al. 1996), Sgr B2 (Baluteau et al. 1997) and NGC 6334V (Kraemer et al. 1998). These observations indicate that the absorbing material is predominantly in foreground cloud(s) where the abundance of the atomic oxygen is within a factor of a few of the cosmic abundance.

Recent studies have strengthened the above results. Based on ISO-LWS Fabry-Pérot data, Vastel et al. (2000) have modelled the \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m line absorption components in the direction of the compact H II region W49 N. Combining these observations with molecular (CO and its isotopes) and H I observations, they showed that both molecular and atomic clouds absorb the strong continuum at 63 $`\mu `$m, and disentangled the absorption due to the molecular clouds from the absorption due to the atomic (H I ) clouds. They concluded that the major part of the 63.2 $`\mu `$m \[O I\] absorption is due to the cold molecular clouds along the line of sight and, through the computation of O0/CO ratio, that in these clouds the gaseous oxygen is almost totally in atomic form.

Similar results were obtained toward Sgr B2 by Lis et al. (2001). They found three \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m absorption components corresponding to foreground clouds, for which the oxygen content of the atomic halo gas could be estimated based on H I observations. Lis et al. (2001) found that the remaining O0 column density is correlated with the observed 13CO column density, corresponding to an average O0/CO ratio of about 9 and to an atomic oxygen abundance of 2.7 $`\times `$ 10-4 in the dense gas phase.

The full Fabry-Pérot ISO-LWS spectrum which was obtained on Sgr B2 as part of the ISO Central Program (see Baluteau et al. in preparation, for a detailed description) enables us to study, at high spectral resolution, the atomic fine-structure of oxygen and carbon in this source and to analyze in a consistent way the profiles of the \[O I\] lines at 63.2 and 145.5 $`\mu `$m and of the \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m line. Sgr B2 is the most massive star-forming region of an ensemble of dense cloud cores in the central ($`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}500}`$ pc) region of the Galaxy. Its estimated mass is larger than $`5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (Lis, Carlstrom & Keene 1991), and the high opacities found toward Srg B2 makes it one of the best candidate for absorption studies. Sgr B2 is located at about 8.5 kpc from the Sun (adopting the IAU distance) and has a projected distance of $`100\mathrm{pc}`$ from the Galactic Center. Ground-based spectroscopic observations of Sgr B2 have shown a very complex pattern of absorption features, with numerous components of foreground gas associated with clouds along the line of sight, covering a wide range of velocities (see Sect. 3.3).

In this paper we present the observational data of the three main far-infrared cooling lines and of the isotopic CO lines in Sect. 2. The absorption lines arising from foreground clouds, which have no physical connection with Sgr B2, are modeled in Sect. 3, where we try to disentangle the absorption due to the molecular cores from that due to the external layers of these clouds. We discuss these results and summarize them in Sect. 4 and 5 respectively.

## 2 Observations and Results

### 2.1 ISO observations of the C+ and O0 lines

Sgr B2 has been observed with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (hereafter LWS; Clegg et al. 1996) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (hereafter ISO; Kessler et al. 1996), using the high resolution mode (AOT L03), within the guaranteed time program ISM\_V. The whole LWS spectral range, from 47 to 196 $`\mu `$m, was covered with 36 separate observations (Baluteau et al. in preparation). Each observation was carried out using a sampling interval of a quarter of a spectral resolution element with each data point repeated at least three times.

The LWS beam of approximately 80$`^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ was centered at $`\alpha =17^\mathrm{h}47^\mathrm{m}21.75^\mathrm{s}`$, $`\delta =28^{}23^{^{}}14.1^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ (J2000). At this position the beam encompasses the Sgr B2 (M) source but not the Sgr B2 North and South sources (following the nomenclature of Goldsmith et al. 1992). The peak of the far-infrared emission is found to be centered near the Sgr B2 (M), in the north-west direction, at a distance of 7$`\mathrm{}`$ and 14$`\mathrm{}`$ at 50 $`\mu `$m and 100 $`\mu `$m, respectively (Goldsmith et al. 1992). No significant difference in the far-infrared continuum emission is found when our observations are compared with other AOT L04 observations centered on Sgr B2 (M). We therefore consider hereafter that the major part of the far-infrared emission is included within the LWS field of view.

During each observation, in the L03 operating mode, one detector was selected as the ‘prime’ detector as its band pass filter included the wavelength range of interest. However, every detector still received some radiation if the combination of FP and grating settings were right. These detectors are known as ‘non-prime’ and often contain useful data that can complement the prime data.

The atomic oxygen fine structure line at 63.2 $`\mu `$m was included in the prime observation carried out in ISO revolution 504 on 1997 April 3. The resolving power of the LWS short wavelength FP (FPS) at this wavelength was determined by interpolating between measurements made on the ground and in orbit and found to be R $``$ 6900. The \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m line was also observed in non-prime observations between 1997 April 3 and April 5. Three observations covered the line entirely and two covered the edges and adjacent continuum. All these observations were performed using the LWS long wavelength FP (FPL) outside of its nominal wavelength range. FPL had a slightly lower resolving power at 63 $`\mu `$m (R $``$ 5800) than FPS but achieved much better signal to noise ratio due to its better overall transmission. The prime and non-prime observations were calibrated and reduced using the same procedure as described in Polehampton et al. (2002).

Figure 1 presents the resulting spectrum at 63 $`\mu `$m using L03 prime observations compared to the spectrum obtained by combining three prime observations in L04 mode during ISO revolutions 326 and 464. In the following, we will use the spectrum obtained in the L03 non-prime mode, whose systematic and random noise at line center is 2.5 times lower than in the L03 prime mode to study the \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m line.

The \[O I\] line at 145.5 $`\mu `$m and the \[C II\] line at 157.7 $`\mu `$m were observed during ISO revolutions 476 (1997 March 6) and 507 (1997 April 6), respectively, as prime observations. There were no good observations of either of these lines on non-prime detectors. These data were reduced in the same way as the 63.2 $`\mu `$m line prime observations. The resolution element of FPL from ground based measurement is $``$ 36 km s-1 and $``$ 34 km s-1 at 145 $`\mu `$m and 158 $`\mu `$m respectively. For the 63.2 $`\mu `$m line non-prime observations the resolution is $``$ 52 km s-1. The instrumental profiles are represented by Airy profiles whose parameters are resolution dependent.

Figure 2 presents both the \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m and 145.5 $`\mu `$m lines together with the \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m line toward Sgr B2 as observed with the ISO-LWS Fabry-Pérot. While the \[O I\] 145.5 $`\mu `$m line is seen in emission, the \[C II\] 158.7 $`\mu `$m line presents a deep absorption in its blue wing whereas the \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m is totally absorbed over a large range of velocities.

### 2.2 IRAM 30-meter observations of 13CO and C18O

Molecular observations of Sgr B2 have been carried out in the 13CO (1 - 0) and (2 - 1) and C18O (1 - 0) and (2 - 1) lines in June 1997 at the IRAM-30 meters telescope (Pico Veleta, Spain). The Sgr B2 complex was mapped over the 80′′ LWS beam area with a beam size of 21′′ at 2.6 mm and 11′′ at 1.3 mm.

The spectra show a bright emission profile at the velocity of the HII region around 60 km s-1. Many molecular components appear at velocities between $``$120 km s-1 and 35 km s-1 in absorption in the central part of the map over a 30′′ $`\times `$ 30′′ area, and in emission around. The clouds mapped in the LWS beam seem to be homogeneous and uniform as the emission components also have their counterparts in the absorption components. We averaged the spectra surrounding the 30′′ $`\times `$ 30′′ area and replaced the central spectra by this average. We then convolved the resulting spectra with a gaussian weighting function to degrade the spatial resolution to 80′′ (ISO/LWS beam). The constructed spectra are shown in Figure 3. Up to ten velocity components are detected and their parameters, as derived from Gaussian fits, are listed in Table 1. The upper limits were derived following the relation:

$$3\sigma (K)=3\times RMS(K)\times \sqrt{2\times binsize(kms^1)/\mathrm{\Delta }v(kms^1)}$$
(1)
assuming a gaussian profile, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$ is the line width of the 13CO or C18O (1 - 0) transition, RMS and $`binsize`$ are parameters of the observed spectrum. The emission component at $``$ 130 km s-1 represents the 175,13 $``$ 184,14 transition of the SO2 molecule.

One molecular component at $``$76.0 km s-1 only appears in absorption in a 30′′ $`\times `$ 30′′ area centered in the 13CO map at the coordinates of Sgr B2 (M), which means that the molecular cloud is not extended in the beam and/or has a low 13CO column density. This component, not listed in Table 1, is averaged over the central positions. It can be fitted by a gaussian with a 1.4 km s-1 line width and a line to continuum ratio of 0.6 for the 13CO (1 - 0) transition.

## 3 Modelling the C+ and O0 Absorption Features

### 3.1 The clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2

Individual absorbing clouds can be distinguished in the line of sight only if they have a unique radial velocity. For lines of sight away from the galactic center the distances to absorbing clouds at different central velocities should be estimated from the galactic rotation curve. However, material in the Galaxy rotates in orbits deviating from circular ones. Figure 4 presents a sketch of the proposed location of background sources and molecular clouds from Greaves & Williams (1994).

Due to the large number of velocity components toward Sgr B2, the determination of the location remains difficult and we will adopt, in the following, the Greaves & Williams schematic diagram, except for the component at a velocity around 0 km s-1. Under circular galactic orbits, any rotating clouds that cross the line of sight could contribute to the $``$ 0 km s-1 absorption and would be mixed with the absorption due to material within a few kpc from the Sun.

The clouds along the line of sight of Sgr B2 are expected to be illuminated by UV photons from the mean interstellar radiation field incident on their external layers ($`G_0`$ = 1 - 10 in units of the standard interstellar flux of 1.6 $`\times `$ 10-3 erg s-1 cm-2, Habing 1968). Following the traditional schematic geometry of the photo-dissociation regions (Hollenbach & Tielens 1999), three different major layers can be distinguished in the study of these clouds from their surface to their core. Ionized carbon, atomic hydrogen and atomic oxygen coexist in the warm, mostly neutral, layer that lies at the surface on which the UV impinges. In the next (deeper) layer, where molecular hydrogen is able to resist photo-dissociation, ionized carbon and atomic oxygen still coexist. The third layer, which constitutes the cold self-shielded molecular core of the cloud, contains molecular hydrogen, carbon monoxide and atomic oxygen.

In the present study the \[O I\] absorption at 63.2 $`\mu `$m is separated into two parts for each cloud: the absorption due to atomic oxygen present in the first two layers where C+ and O are coexistent (hereafter ”external cloud layers”) and that due to atomic oxygen in the cold molecular cores where O and 13CO are coexistent (hereafter ”internal molecular cores”).

### 3.2 The external cloud layers

#### 3.2.1 H I observations

The diffuse atomic components are parametrized using observations of the H I 21 cm line seen in absorption toward Sgr B2 (M). These observations were performed by Garwood & Dickey (1989) using the VLA with a spectral resolution of $``$ 5 km s-1 after Hanning smoothing and a spatial resolution of $`5\mathrm{}`$. We re-fitted the absorption components in this spectrum as we found some errors in the fit parameters quoted by Garwood & Dickey (1989). All absorption features in the observed spectrum were fitted by Gaussians whose parameters are the central velocities ($`V_{LSR}`$), the line widths ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v(H I )) and the H I optical depths ($`\tau `$(H I )). These parameters are listed in the three first columns of Table 2 for velocities between $``$110 and +10 km s-1. Higher velocities, corresponding to diffuse H I clouds associated with the Sgr B2 main complex, are not listed as our present study concerns only clouds along the line of sight to this complex.

#### 3.2.2 The \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m line

At velocities below $`30\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, the \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m line is seen in absorption toward Sgr B2 and in emission at larger velocities (Fig. 2). Before performing any modelling of the absorption feature, an estimate of the C+ emission component is required. The physical conditions prevailing in the external cloud layers, where C+ is the dominant part of the carbon, are assumed to be also valid for atomic oxygen where the \[O I\] 145.5 $`\mu `$m line is emitted, due to the higher gas temperature found in these layers (Tielens & Hollenbach 1985). The \[O I\] 145.5 $`\mu `$m line (Fig. 2) is well fitted with a Gaussian centered around $`60\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, with an FWHM of $`40\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, convolved with the instrumental profile. The fit compared to the observations is shown in Fig. 5. We will model the C+ emission component by adopting similar parameters as for the \[O I\] 145.5 $`\mu `$m line.

The C+ absorption features are fitted by Gaussians whose centers and line widths are deduced from the H I 21 cm line parameters. This implies that the physical conditions of the layer where hydrogen is mainly atomic are also valid for the second layer where H2 is able to resist against photo-dissociation.

The absorption function used for the computations is defined by:

$$I=I_c\times exp(\tau (\lambda )),$$
(2)
where Ic is the continuum flux and the optical depth function, $`\tau (\lambda )`$, is defined by:

$$\tau (\lambda )=\tau _0\times exp\left(\frac{(\lambda \lambda _0)^2}{2\sigma ^2}\right),$$
(3)
where $`\tau _0`$ is the optical depth at line center, $`\lambda _0`$ is the wavelength at line center and $`\sigma `$ is proportional to the width of the absorption lines.

The optical depth of each C+ absorption feature is adjusted in order to reproduce the observed spectrum when combined with the emission at 60 km s-1. The final fit of the 157.7 $`\mu `$m line is shown in Fig. 6 after convolution of the spectrum with the instrumental profile of the LWS-FP at 158 $`\mu `$m. Note that the fit at velocities above $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is not perfect, which is due to the lack of information at these velocities (see, e.g., Garwood and Dickey 1989). Another origin of this discrepancy could be due to the transient effects of the LWS detectors (Caux et al. 2002), not corrected in this data set. However, this has no implication for the following results since we are concerned with clouds at velocities lower than 10 km s-1.

The \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m optical depth can be linked to the line width and to the C+ column density, for a given density and temperature (see, e.g., Crawford et al. 1985). For densities lower that 3.3 $`\times `$ 103 cm-3, a reasonable estimate of the C+ column density for all temperatures is:

$$N(C^+)1.3\times 10^{17}\times \tau _{C^+}\times \mathrm{\Delta }v(C^+)(\mathrm{cm}^2),$$
(4)
where the line width $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v is in km s-1. The computed C+ optical depths and column densities are listed in Table 2 (columns 4 and 5, respectively) for each component seen in the H I observations.

#### 3.2.3 The \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m line

In the external layers, (as defined above), the major oxygen and carbon bearing species, in the gas phase, are O0 and C+. The variation of their abundances is poorly known at galactocentric distances lower than 5 kpc. The standard cosmic ratio O/C of 2.3 is used to compute the column density of atomic oxygen in the external layers of the clouds (Table 2, column 6). This standard ratio is obtained using the cosmic abundance compared to hydrogen in the gas phase of 1.4 $`\times `$ 10-4 for carbon (Cardelli et al. 1996) and 3.2 $`\times `$ 10-4 for oxygen (Meyer, Jura & Cardelli 1998). The total column density of atomic oxygen in the external layers of clouds at $`V_{LSR}`$ lower than 10 km s-1 is estimated to be 8.5 $`\times `$ 1018 cm-2.

Since the density in the external layers is believed to be low (generally less than 103 cm-3), we can safely assume that, in the absorbing region, the majority of oxygen atoms are in the ground state. Therefore the column density of atomic oxygen is directly proportional to the optical depth (Spitzer 1978) as follows:

$$N(O^0)=\frac{g_l}{g_u}\frac{8\pi }{\lambda ^3A_{ul}}\tau _0\sqrt{\pi }\frac{FWHM}{2\sqrt{ln2}}$$
(5)
$$=2.1\times 10^{17}\times \tau _0\times \mathrm{\Delta }v(O^0)\mathrm{cm}^2,$$
(6)
where $`g_i`$ is the statistical weight of level $`i`$, $`A_{ul}`$ = 8.46 $`\times `$ 10-5 s-1 (Baluja & Zeippen 1988) is the Einstein coefficient, $`\lambda `$ = 63.184 $`\mu `$m, $`\tau _0`$ is the optical depth at line center and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v(O0) is the full width at half maximum in km s-1 of the absorption line.

In the external part of the clouds, the absorption by atomic oxygen, parametrized by $`\tau `$(O), is computed using the measured H I line width and the derived column density of atomic oxygen (see Table 2). Above 15 km s-1, due to the expected presence of an \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m emission line around 60 km s-1 from the compact regions in the core of the Sgr B2 complex, the absorption by atomic oxygen in foreground clouds cannot be defined. Again, this has no implication on our results since we restrict our study to clouds with velocities lower than 10 km s-1. The resulting spectrum is then convolved with the instrumental profile of the LWS-FP at 63 $`\mu `$m and compared to the observations (Fig. 7).

A clear result deduced from Fig. 7 is that an important fraction of the observed absorption cannot be accounted for solely by the external layers of the clouds at velocities lower than 10 km s-1. Therefore the contribution of the cold molecular cores to the atomic oxygen absorption can now be determined.

### 3.3 The internal molecular cores

Molecules that have been detected in foreground gas clouds not associated with Sgr B2 include H2CO (Mehringer, Palmer & Goss 1995), HCO+, HCN (Linke, Stark & Frerking 1981), C3H2 (Matthews & Irvine 1985), NH3 (Hüttemeister et al. 1993), CS, C34S, H13CN, H13CO+ and SiO (Greaves et al. 1992), CH (Stacey, Lügten & Genzel 1987), H216O and H218O (Neufeld et al. 2000). HCN (3 - 2), CS (2 - 1) and (3 - 2) absorption lines have been detected toward Sgr B2 indicating a cloud averaged n$`_{H_2}`$ density close to 200 cm-3 and a kinetic temperature between 10 and 20 K (Greaves 1995).

From our 13CO and C18O observations, we derive the physical parameters of eight molecular cloud cores listed in Table 1 with velocities lower than 10 km s-1, using a standard LVG model described in Castets et al. (1990). The computations were performed in a restricted range of densities and temperatures taking into account the previous estimates through molecular observations. We used the 13CO, C18O (1 - 0) and (2 - 1) transitions to simultaneously compute the temperature, density and 13CO column density (columns 3, 4, and 5 of Table 3, respectively). We took into account the galactocentric gradient of 16O/18O and 12CO/13CO in the Galaxy as measured by Wilson & Rood (1994) and Langer et al. (1990, 1993). At a galactocentric distance lower or equal than 4 kpc, we adopted the values 12CO/13CO = 30 and 13CO/C18O = 6. The component near 0 km s-1 is not clearly attributed to clouds in the Sgr B2 complex or to a summation of clouds along the line of sight. In this case we used typical values for the local interstellar medium, i.e. 12CO/13CO = 60 and 13CO/C18O = 10. The kinetic temperature and density of the $``$76 km s-1 cloud cannot be computed through our LVG model with only the absorption component of the (1 - 0) 13CO transition. Nevertheless, one can estimate the 13CO column density in this cloud under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). Dickman (1976) has found that the column density of 13CO derived in LTE is accurate to within a factor of 2 for dark clouds. N(13CO) is estimated to be 4.8 $`\times `$ 1014 cm-2. For the other clouds, we estimate that using the LVG model, the uncertainty on the 13CO column density is lower than 20%. This value was computed taking into account the uncertainties on the best fit of the lines. For the $``$76 km s-1 cloud the uncertainty on the 13CO column density is accurate to within a factor of 2. The final column densities with their errors are presented in Table 3.

Assuming that the atomic oxygen in the cold molecular component is coexistent everywhere with 13CO, the line centers and the line widths should be the same for the two species. Combining the absorption due to both parts of the clouds (the external layers and the molecular cores), we can now find the best fit to the observed absorption by varying the O0 optical depth in each molecular core and convolving with the instrumental profile. The background Sgr B2 source is fitted by an emission component at 60 km s-1 for the present computations, corresponding to the observed position of the 13CO and C18O line emission (see Sect. 2.2). The resulting \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m optical thickness and the corresponding atomic oxygen column densities, computed using Eq. 6, are reported in Table 3 in columns 6 and 7. The total atomic oxygen column density in the molecular cores along the line of sight to Sgr B2 is estimated to be $``$ 2.2 $`\times `$ 1019 cm-2 between $``$120 km s-1 and +10 km s-1, i.e. about three times more than that derived for the diffuse external parts of the clouds. Considering the number of parameters used in the computation of the atomic oxygen column density, the uncertainty is difficult to determine. Nevertheless, taking into account a 30% variation in the O0 linewidth and the combined systematic and random error of the LWS data, we estimate that the result cannot change by more than 50%.

The final result for the combination of the different layers of the clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2 is shown in Figure 8. Additional clouds, responsible for absorption by atomic oxygen at velocities larger than 10 km s-1, were introduced only for the fit shown in this figure, but their parameters are not reported in Table 3 as they are clearly dependent on the assumed \[O I\] 63.2 $`\mu `$m emission profile and they have no impact on the results of this present study.

The computed O0/13CO ratios in the nine molecular components along the line of sight of Sgr B2 are presented in column 8 of Table 3. In order to compare with the canonical value of $`1`$ for the O0/12CO ratio predicted by chemical models (e.g., Lee, Bettens & Herbst 1996), we took into account the variation of the isotopic ratio 12CO/13CO as function of the galactocentric distance. The O0/12CO ratio (column 9 of Table 3) then is found to range between 3 and 37. The uncertainties are presented in this table, taking into account the combined errors on the 13CO and atomic oxygen column densities.

## 4 Discussion

A total atomic oxygen column density of $``$ 3.1 $`\times `$ 1019 cm-2 is derived through the method developed in this paper, taking into account the diffuse and molecular parts of the clouds between $``$120 km s-1 and +6 km s-1. This value is consistent with the minimum column density of atomic oxygen computed by Baluteau et al. (1997) toward Sgr B2 of 1019 cm-2 using the LWS in its low resolution mode (grating).

As already discussed in Section 3.1, the traditional geometry of photo-dissociation regions imply that any cold molecular core should be associated with external layers, generally more diffuse and probably as halos, that can be observed through atomic H I absorption. We consider in the following that this association is effective when the velocity at which 13CO absorption occurs is within the observed line width of the H I absorption feature. Eight such “clouds” are found along the line of sight to Sgr B2, within the velocity range from $``$110 and +10 km s-1, and their properties are listed in Table 4. The cloud label, the H I and 13CO associated velocities and the estimated galactocentric distance (see Section 3.1) are given in columns 1 to 4.

For each cloud the derived ratio of the neutral oxygen column densities of the molecular cores to the whole cloud (external layers + molecular cores) is given in column 5. This ratio is indicative of the importance in mass of the molecular core(s) within each cloud. Two clouds (labelled B and E) are found not to be associated with any significant molecular core. As indicated in Section 3.3, the molecular cores along the line of sight to Sgr B2 provide an atomic oxygen column density about three times that due to the diffuse external layers of the clouds.

### 4.1 The C+/H ratio in the external layer of the clouds

The H I column densities of the diffuse atomic components seen along the line of sight to Sgr B2 (M) can be computed with the standard relation:

$$N(HI)=1.823\times 10^{18}\times T_{spin}\times \tau (v)𝑑v(cm^2)$$
(7)
where (Tspin) is the H I spin temperature. Through observations of hydrogen absorption features in the direction of Sgr B2, Cohen (1977) derived the spin temperature of each absorbing cloud. However, the radio beam (13 by 13 angular resolution), is much too large compared to the ISO/LWS one, and their determination of the spin temperature cannot be used in our study. To derive an H I column density for each cloud along the line of sight to Sgr B2, in the range of velocities between $``$110 and +10 km s-1, we used a standard value of 150 K for the spin temperature (value well within the range derived by Cohen, 1977). The resulting H I column density is given in columns 6 of Table 4. The total column density of atomic hydrogen in the clouds listed in Table 4 is about 1.6 $`\times `$ 1022 cm-2.

Assuming that the standard ratio Av/N(H) = 5.3 $`\times `$ 10-22 cm-2 applies, we calculated that the clouds along the line of sight have a diffuse atomic hydrogen surface layer with Av between 0.1 and 4.4 (see column 7 of Table 4). It appears that the lower the galactocentric distance is, the lower the visual extinction of this layer is. This could be explained by the higher FUV interstellar radiation field encountered at smaller galactocentric distances, leading to a sharpening of the atomic H I layer as indicated by PDR models (Hollenbach & Tielens 1999). However, the identified H I clouds may be separated into several smaller clouds if they were viewed at higher resolution. The computed values of the visual exctinction in each of the identified clouds should be taken as an average value and cannot be significantly indicative of their characteristics.

The computed values for the C+ abundance compared to atomic hydrogen (column 8 of Table 4) in the cloud external layers are always found larger than the cosmic value in the gas phase of 1.4 $`\times `$ 10-4 (Cardelli et al. 1996), except in one case (cloud E at $``$52 km s-1). This is compatible with the picture of 2 external layers: the first one where C+ is coexistent with atomic hydrogen and the second one, deeper in the cloud, where C+ is coexistent with molecular hydrogen. The derived value of C+/H then provides a method to estimate the mass of the regions filled by C+ and H I (as the second layer was not included separately in the calculation). Assuming a C/H cosmic ratio valid for all the clouds, we found that the mass in the C+/H I and C+/H2 layers should be approximately the same, which is consistent with what is found for standard PDRs models (Hollenbach & Tielens 1999).

### 4.2 The C0 layer in the clouds

The O0 column densities of the six clouds exhibiting molecular core are plotted versus their CO column densities in Figure 9, with the assumption about the galactocentric variation of the 13C/12C ratio as given above. There is a clear linear correlation between N(O0) and N(CO), except for cloud H (at 1.7 km s-1) which is believed to result from a blending of clouds with uncertain galactocentric distances. We performed a linear least-square fit (N(O0) = a + bN(CO)) taking into account that both N(CO) and N(O0) data have errors. This method based on the minimization of the $`\chi ^2`$ function leads to the estimation of the a and b parameters. The $`\chi ^2`$ function is defined by:

$$\chi ^2(a,b)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }N(O^0)_i^2}{\sigma _i^2}$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }N(O^0)_i=N(O^0)_i(bN(CO)_i+a)`$ is the difference between the observed and fitted value of N(O0), and $`\sigma _i^2=\sigma _{N(O^0)_i}^2+b^2\sigma _{N(CO)_i}^2`$ is the weighted sum of the variance in the direction of the smallest $`\chi ^2`$ between each data point and the line with slope b. $`\sigma _{N(CO)_i}`$ and $`\sigma _{N(O^0)_i}`$ are, respectively, the N(CO) and N(O0) standard deviation for the ith point. The resulting slope is 2.5 $`\pm `$ 1.8 and the intersection point with the N(O0)-axis gives an excess amount of atomic oxygen with an average column density of (5.6 $`\pm `$ 2.0) $`\times `$ 1017 cm-2. This atomic oxygen in excess is interpreted as due to an intermediate layer between the C+ external layer and the CO core where the atomic oxygen coexist with the atomic carbon, as predicted by PDR models.

From theoretical PDR models, a layer of neutral atomic carbon should exist near the surfaces of molecular clouds or clumps within clouds where the UV interstellar radiation field strikes these surfaces (e. g. Tielens & Hollenbach 1985) as part of the C+/C/CO transition region. Observations by Plume, Jaffe & Keene (1994) confirmed that the C0 emission may arise from PDRs on the surfaces of the molecular clumps distributed throughout the molecular cloud. As discussed in Tielens & Hollenbach (1985) and Hollenbach, Takahashi & Tielens (1991), the column density of neutral carbon is insensitive to the strength of the external FUV field. Only the depth at which the C+/C/CO transition occurs depends on the FUV field. This strengthens the case for having a constant atomic carbon column density in all our clouds.
Using the cosmic O/C ratio introduced previously with our observations, we deduce an average column density for atomic carbon in each cloud along the line of sight to Sgr B2 of (2.4 $`\pm `$ 0.9) $`\times `$ 1017 cm-2.

This derived C0 column density, found in each cloud associated with a molecular core, is well within the range of values derived by Usuda et al. (in preparation) from C0 observations. Their first detection of the \[C I\] 3P1 \- 3P0 absorption lines in the direction of Sgr B2 in the 10.6′′ beam of JCMT leads to an estimate of the C0 column density in five cloud complexes (clouds labelled here A, C, D, F and G) between 1 and 13 $`\times `$ 1017 cm-2.

A summary of previous measurements of the C0/CO ratio in galactic interstellar clouds is illustrated in Figure 9 of Usuda et al. (in preparation) where this ratio is plotted against the cloud visual extinction. The highest values of this ratio (between 2 and 20) are obtained in diffuse interstellar clouds (Federman et al. 1980) while the lowest values (ranging from 0.03 to 0.3) are found in dense photo-dissociation regions (Keene et al. 1985). The general slope of the C0/CO vs AV relation indicates that the column density of C0 is relatively constant in clouds with visual extinction greater than unity. Our derived values of the C0/CO ratio are consistent with this general relation; clouds C and D could be classified as diffuse clouds (e.g. Federman et al. 1980) where C0/CO = \[16.2, 8.1\], clouds A and G as translucent clouds (e.g. Stark & van Dishoeck 1994) where C0/CO = \[1.2, 4.0\] and cloud F as a dense cloud (e.g. Schilke et al. 1995; Maezawa et al. 1999) where C0/CO = 0.3.

Values for the C+/C0 ratio in the six clouds associated with a molecular core can be derived from this study. While clouds close to the galactic center (labelled A, C and D) yield a C+/C0 ratio less than 0.7, those at galactocentric distance of 3-4 kpc (F and G) have ratios close to 2.5. For G0/n $``$ 3 $`\times `$ 10-3 cm3, the C+/C/CO transition is drawn to the cloud surface (Kaufman et al. 1999) which could explain the low C+/C0 ratio ($`<`$ 1) found near the galactic center.

### 4.3 The O0/CO ratio in the molecular cores

In the previous Section we provide observational arguments for the presence of a neutral carbon layer, at the surface boundary of the molecular cores, and give estimates of the column density of the associated neutral oxygen. Therefore, the actual column density of neutral oxygen in the region where CO is the major carbon reservoir can be derived, leading to a better estimate of the true N(O0)/N(CO) ratio in the molecular clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2. However, because of the large uncertainties still present a mean value, derived from the slope of the linear correlation between N(O0) and N(CO) appears more relevant than individual values. Taking into account the errors presented in the previous section, it appears that the O0/CO ratio is lower than 4.3 and larger than 0.7 with a best fit value of 2.5. It is in good agreement with the 1.8 value found by Goldsmith (2001: see his Table 3) taking into account a molecular depletion in dark cloud cores. Furthermore, this value is within the same range of magnitude than the values computed with standard models for dense interstellar clouds in steady states (Lee, Bettens & Herbst 1996).

Our derived O0/CO ratio implies that $``$ 70% of gaseous oxygen is in the atomic form and not locked into CO in the molecular clouds along the Sgr B2 line of sight. The upper (respectively lower) limits of this ratio corresponds to $``$ 80% (respectively 40%) of the gaseous oxygen in the atomic form.

The value derived here should be compared to the lower limit of 15 for the O/CO ratio obtained for molecular clouds along the W49N HII region line of sight (Vastel et al. 2000). Note that the \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m profile of this source does not present any trace of either emission or absorption components at the velocities of the distant clouds. The physical and chemical characteristics of the clouds in these two lines of sight seem very different and cannot then be directly connected. Furthermore, the lack of information on the intermediate neutral carbon layer in the clouds along the W49N line of sight leads to slightly overvalue the O/CO ratio.

Considering the calculated uncertainties, we cannot directly determine the exact oxygen budget in these molecular clouds. However, only the lower limit on the O0/CO ratio is consistent with the predictions of steady states models and though we cannot exclude values as low as this (O0/CO $``$ 1), the probability of larger ratios is much higher. The oxygen chemistry in dense clouds is still not well known as it is very difficult to reproduce the O2 and H2O abundances limits measured by SWAS. Further observations of the O0, O2 and H2O species will provide important clues to constrain the chemistry in these cold molecular clouds.

### 4.4 Optical thickness of the C+ line

The \[C II\] fine structure transition at 157.741 $`\mu `$m is the major coolant of the warm interstellar medium. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element and has a lower ionization potential (11.26 eV) than hydrogen. Therefore, carbon is in the form of C+ on the surface of far UV illuminated neutral gas clouds. In addition, the C+ line is relatively easy to excite, so that the line can efficiently cool the warm neutral gas. Depending on the density in this layer, the line may be self-absorbed. The first observational evidence of an absorption feature in the C+ spectrum has been carried out by the Kuiper Astronomical Observatory toward the W51 HII region (Zmuidzinas, 1987). The absorption feature in its profile was attributed to a separate “cooler” low density foreground cloud. Recently, studies of many bright galaxies showed that the \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu `$m line is deficient compared to the total FIR luminosity. Non detection or weak detection have been highlighted toward FIR bright galaxies (Stacey et al. 1991; Malhotra et al. 1997; Luhman et al. 1998). These observations were carried out at a much lower resolution than that used in our study of Sgr B2. Our results indicate that if these galaxies were viewed at high spectral resolution, the spectra could reveal both emission and absorption components present in the C+ profile. This strengthens the idea that under certain conditions the C+ line could be optically thick in the direction of large star-forming complexes or in the nuclei of galaxies.

## 5 Conclusion

Using \[C II\] 157.7 $`\mu m`$, \[O I\] 63.2 and 145.5 $`\mu m`$ line observations, we were able to distinguish between the contributions of the different layers within the galactic clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2. We separate the layers of the atomic diffuse surface and of the molecular core of these clouds. This is a major improvement over the previous analysis of this line of sight by Lis et al. (2001), which was based on observations of the \[O I\] 63 $`\mu `$m line only. We were able to associate atomic oxygen with three layers through the clouds characterized by different forms of carbon in the gas phase, as predicted by standard PDR models: i.e. the major form of carbon changing from C+ to C0 and finally to CO.

From the line shape modelling presented here, a total column density of atomic oxygen in the line of sight to Sgr B2 of about 3.1 $`\times `$ 1019 cm-2 is derived within the clouds with velocities between $``$120 km s-1 and +10 km s-1. Less than 30 % of this total O0 column density is found to be due to the external layers of the clouds (where C+ is the major form of carbon).

The method used in this study leads to an estimate of the oxygen content in the intermediate layer where C0 is the dominant form of carbon. The atomic carbon column densities derived here for the galactic clouds, with a mean value about 2.4 $`\times `$ 1017 cm-2, are in good agreement with recent observations of the \[C I\] 492 GHz line. The derived C0/CO ratios are indicative of clouds, ranging from diffuse to dense, along the line of sight of the Sgr B2 complex which have been fragmented and illuminated by the galactic interstellar radiation field. C+/C0 ratios close to 2.5 are derived for the clouds at galactocentric distances of 3 - 4 kpc, and ratios less than 0.7 for clouds in the galactic center region.
The method used to disentangle the different layers of the clouds in the line of sight leads to the accurate computation of the O0/CO ratio ($``$ 2.5) in the internal layers. Therefore, about 70% of gaseous oxygen is in the atomic form and not locked into CO in the molecular clouds along the Sgr B2 line of sight.
Future instrumentation will enable the present analysis to be improved. The Herschel project, with its high spectral resolution (HIFI) capability, will allow to better characterize the physical conditions of these clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2 (and maybe on other lines of sight in direction of the galactic center as well), in particular from the C+ and C0 lines and from high J transitions of CO. SMA and ALMA will provide high spatial resolution C0 observations of these clouds necessary to separate each of them. At high spectral resolution, the fundamental transitions of atomic oxygen will only be accessible to the second instrument generation on board the SOFIA observatory.

We would like to graciously acknowledge the European Space Agency, the ISO LWS instrument team and the ISO data reduction software groups. We are grateful to Tom Phillips, Jocelyn Keene and Darek Lis for many interesting discussions.