A neutral hydrogen survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Aperture synthesis and multibeam data combined

Recent H I surveys of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes multibeam receiver have focused, respectively, on the small-scale (<20′) structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) and the large-scale (>1degrees) structure of the galaxy. Using a Fourier-plane technique, we have merged both data sets, providing an accurate set of images of the LMC sensitive to structure on scales of 15 pc upward. The spatial dynamic range (2.8 orders of magnitude), velocity resolution (1.649 km s(-1)), brightness temperature sensitivity (2.4 K), and column density sensitivity (7.2 x 10(18) cm(-2) per 1.649 km s(-1) channel) allow for studies of phenomena ranging from the galaxy-wide interaction of the LMC with its close neighbors to the small-scale injection of energy from supernovae and stellar associations into the ISM of the LMC. This paper presents the merged data and size spectrum of H I clouds, which is similar to the typical size spectrum of the holes and shells in the H I distribution. The H I clouds in the LMC have been identified by defining a cloud to be an object composed of all pixels in right ascension, declination, and velocity that are simply connected and that lie above the threshold brightness temperature.