Galactic CHaMP. III. ^12^CO dense clump properties

This release is for all ^12^CO J=1->0 emission associated with the dense gas, the first from Phase II of the survey, which includes ^12^CO, ^13^CO, and C^18^O. The observed clump emission traced by both ^12^CO and HCO^+^ (from Phase I) shows very similar morphology, indicating that, for dense molecular clouds and complexes of all sizes, parsec-scale clumps contain {Xi}~75% of the mass, while only 25% of the mass lies in extended (>~10pc) or "low density" components in these same areas.

The mass fraction of all gas above a density of 10^9^m^-3^ is {xi}_9_>~50%. This suggests that parsec-scale clumps may be the basic building blocks of the molecular interstellar medium, rather than the standard giant molecular cloud (GMC) concept. Using ^12^CO emission, we derive physical properties of these clumps in their entirety, and compare them to properties from HCO^+^, tracing their denser interiors.