Predicted Profiles of Ultraviolet Interstellar Absorption Lines

Abstract

In this paper, values of the column density, line width parameter, and velocity are determined for as many components derived from optical interstellar absorption-line profiles of Na I and K I as needed to reproduce the observed high-resolution optical profiles of the D lines of Na I toward eight lightly reddened stars and of the 7698 A line of K I toward six moderately reddened stars. The derived component structures are then used to predict UV absorption-line profiles due to C I, Mg I, S I, Si I, and Fe I along the same lines of sight. Comparison of the predicted profiles with existing lower resolution line profiles and equivalent width data suggests that this simple scaling procedure can in many cases fairly reliably predict the UV profiles from the observed optical ones.