The ATCA H i Survey of the Galactic Center

We present a survey of atomic hydrogen (H i) emission in the direction of the Galactic Center conducted with the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The survey covers the area −5 ◦ ≤ l ≤ +5◦, −5 ◦ ≤ b ≤ +5◦ over the velocity range −309 ≤ vLSR ≤ 349 km s−1 with a velocity resolution of 1 km s−1. The ATCA data are supplemented with data from the Parkes Radio Telescope for sensitivity to all angular scales larger than the 145′ ′ angular resolution of the survey. The mean rms brightness temperature across the field is 0.7 K, except near (l, b) = 0◦, 0 ◦ where it increases to ∼ 2 K. This survey complements the Southern Galactic Plane Survey to complete the continuous coverage of the inner Galactic plane in H i at ∼ 2 ′ resolution. Here we describe the observations and analysis of this Galactic Center survey and present the final data product. Features such as Bania’s Clump 2, the far 3 kiloparsec arm and small high velocity clumps are briefly described. Subject headings: Galaxy: structure — ISM: structure — radio lines: ISM