IONIZED-GAS IN THE HALOS OF EDGE-ON, STARBURST GALAXIES - DATA AND RESULTS

We present narrowband H alpha and broadband R images, as well as long-slit spectra oriented along the minor and major axes of a sample of about 50 edge-on (a/b greater than or equal to 2), infrared-warm (S-60 mu m/S-100 mu m > 0.4), infrared-bright (S-60 mu m greater than or equal to 5.4 Jy) galaxies. The infrared luminosity of the sample ranges over 10(10)-10(12) L.. The spatially resolved spectroscopy includes the measurement of velocity relative to the nuclear velocity, full width at half-maximum, total integrated flux in the profile (for those spectra taken under photometric conditions) for the lines [N II] lambda lambda 6548, 6583, [O I] lambda 36300, H alpha, and [S II] lambda lambda 67 16, 6731 and line ratios as a function of slit position along both the major and minor axes. The resolution of the spectra are between about 3 and 5 Angstrom. The spectroscopic data are presented for 5 bins along each axis-a nuclear bin that is a sum of the CCD rows that cover the half-light diameter centered on the nucleus of the galaxy, two near-nuclear bins which are sums of the CCD rows that cover from one to two half-light radii on each side of the nucleus, and two off-nuclear bins which are sums of the rows at nuclear distances greater than two half-light radii on each side of the nucleus. Additionally, we present recession velocities, nuclear line asymmetries, rotation speeds, minor axis velocity shears, H alpha luminosities, R-band absolute magnitudes, minor axis H alpha ''excess,'' and effective radii of the galaxies in H alpha and the R continuum. We defer discussion of the properties of the emission-line gas and their correlation with the infrared properties of this sample of galaxies to a later paper and limit ourselves to a presentation of the data and analysis.