SATURATION EFFECTS IN OH MASER CLOUDS

Recent single telescope and interferometer observations of OH maser sources are used to investigate the important question of the degree of saturation of the maser components. The parameters used include profile shapes, relative line widths and intensities, time variability and relative component positions. The data for the main-line (1665 and 1667 MHz) emission from W3 OH and W75N indicate that the components are most likely unsaturated. The maser emission from each component appears to arise along a column through the OH source rather than in a small spherical region within the source. © 1977 Royal Astronomical Society. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System.