Abstract
New measurements of the ultraviolet surface brightness of the night sky in 71 fields in the galactic longitude range 65degree< or =l/sub i//sub i/< or =145degree are presented. The data were obtained with the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO-2) at nine wavelengths between 1500 A and 4200 A and have been corrected for the contributions due to zodiacal light and integrated starlight. The residual brightnesses were analyzed with radiative transfer models for the diffuse galactic light which incorporate a z-dependent source function. The results qualitatively confirm earlier findings for this wavelength region, yielding a wavelength dependent albedo of the interstellar grains of approximately ..cap alpha..=0.7 +- 0.1 longward of lambda3000, ..cap alpha..=0.35 +- 0.05 around the pronounced minimum near lambda2200, and ..cap alpha..=0.6 +- 0.05 at lambda1550. The true absorption nature of the bump in the interstellar extinction curve near lambda2200, as well as the increase of the albedo shortward of lambda2000 are thus reconfirmed. The phase function asymmetry factor is found to lie between g=0.6 and g=0.9 for the entire wavelength range, indicating the interstellar grains are strongly forward scattering. (AIP)
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