Far-Ultraviolet Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole with SPEAR

Abstract

We present SPEAR/FIMS far-ultraviolet observations near the north ecliptic pole. This area, at b ~ 30° and with intermediate H I column, seems to be a fairly typical line of sight that is representative of general processes in the diffuse interstellar medium. We detect a surprising number of emission lines of many elements at various ionization states, representing gas phases from the warm neutral medium to the hot ionized medium. We also detect fluorescence bands of H2, which may be due to the ubiquitous diffuse H2 previously observed in absorption.