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The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) is a project to combine radio, millimetre and infrared surveys of the Galactic Plane to provide arc-minute scale images of all major components of the interstellar medium over a large portion of the Galactic disk. We describe in detail the observations for the low-frequency component of the CGPS, the radio surveys carried out at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO), and summarize the properties of the merged database of surveys that comprises the CGPS.The DRAO Synthesis Telescope surveys have imaged a 73 • section of the Galactic Plane, using ∼85% of the telescope time between April 1995 and June 2000. The observations provide simultaneous radio continuum images at two frequencies, 408 MHz and 1420 MHz, and spectralline images of the λ21-cm transition of neutral atomic hydrogen. In the radio continuum at 1420 MHz dual-polarization receivers provide images in all four Stokes parameters. The surveys cover the region 74.2 • < < 147.3 • , with latitude extent of −3.6 • < b < +5.6 • at 1420 MHz and −6.7 • < b < +8.7 • at 408 MHz. By integration of data from single-antenna observations, the survey images provide complete information on all scales of emission structures down to the resolution limit, which is just below 1 × 1 cosec(δ) at 1420 MHz, and 3.4 × 3.4 cosec(δ) at 408 MHz. The continuum images have dynamic range of several thousand, yielding essentially noise-limited images with rms of ∼0.3 mJy/beam at 1420 MHz and ∼3 mJy/beam at 408 MHz. The spectral-line data are noise limited with rms brightness temperature ∆T B ∼ 3 K in a 0.82 km s −1 channel.The complete CGPS data set, including the DRAO surveys and data at similar resolution in 12 CO (1-0) and in infrared emission from dust, all imaged to an identical Galactic co-ordinate grid and map projection, are being made publicly available through the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.

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We reveal cold Galactic clouds of neutral hydrogen in unprecedented detail. Our 21 cm synthesis maps, taken from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey, show a numerous and diverse population of H I self-absorption (HISA) features in gas outside the solar circle. These objects vary in size, shape, and contrast against the background H I. All display a high level of angular and velocity structure, and most would appear signiÐcantly diluted, if not invisible, in lower resolution H I surveys. A number of Perseus arm features remain unresolved by the 1@ beam of our survey, with apparent diameters less than 0.6 pc at 2 kpc distance. The majority of HISA features we detect have no obvious 12CO emission counterparts. This suggests that either HISA is not found predominantly in molecular clouds, as has often been presumed in the past, or that CO is not a good tracer of Some HISA lacking CO shows far-infrared H 2 . dust emission, though whether this arises from shielded molecular gas or from di †use atomic clouds is not clear. Constraining the gas properties of HISA remains a difficult problem, but we introduce a new method that aids this process. Our approach relates a number of physical parameters via gas law and line integral relationships and should prove powerful if the input variables are sufficiently well known. We explore the current allowed parameter ranges for three sample features of very di †erent appearance. We Ðnd spin temperatures

This paper describes a new Heterodyne Array Receiver Program (HARP) and Auto‐Correlation Spectral Imaging System (ACSIS) that have recently been installed and commissioned on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The 16‐element focal‐plane array receiver, operating in the submillimetre from 325 to 375 GHz, offers high (three‐dimensional) mapping speeds, along with significant improvements over single‐detector counterparts in calibration and image quality. Receiver temperatures are ∼120 K across the whole band, and system temperatures of ∼300 K are reached routinely under good weather conditions. The system includes a single‐sideband (SSB) filter so these are SSB values. Used in conjunction with ACSIS, the system can produce large‐scale maps rapidly, in one or more frequency settings, at high spatial and spectral resolution. Fully sampled maps of size can be observed in under 1 h. The scientific need for array receivers arises from the requirement for programmes to study samples of objects of statistically significant size, in large‐scale unbiased surveys of galactic and extra‐galactic regions. Along with morphological information, the new spectral imaging system can be used to study the physical and chemical properties of regions of interest. Its three‐dimensional imaging capabilities are critical for research into turbulence and dynamics. In addition, HARP/ACSIS will provide highly complementary science programmes to wide‐field continuum studies and produce the essential preparatory work for submillimetre interferometers such as the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA).