Highly ionized plasmas in the Milky Way

The cooling transition temperature gas in the interstellar medium (ISM), traced by the high ions, SiIV, CIV, NV, and OVI, helps to constrain the flow of energy from the hot ISM with T>10^6^K to the warm ISM with T<2x10^4^K. We investigate the properties of this gas along the lines of sight to 38 stars in the Milky Way disk using 1.5-2.7km/s resolution spectra of SiIV, CIV, and NV absorption from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, and 15km/s resolution spectra of OVI absorption from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer.

The absorption by SiIV and CIV exhibits broad and narrow components while only broad components are seen in NV and OVI. The narrow components imply gas with T<7x10^4^K and trace two distinct types of gas.