Global Hot Gas in and around the Galaxy
  The hot interstellar medium traces the stellar feedback and its role in
regulating the eco-system of the Galaxy. I review recent progress in
understanding the medium, based largely on X-ray absorption line spectroscopy,
complemented by X-ray emission and far-UV OVI absorption measurements. These
observations enable us for the first time to characterize the global spatial,
thermal, chemical, and kinematic properties of the medium. The results are
generally consistent with what have been inferred from X-ray imaging of nearby
galaxies similar to the Galaxy. It is clear that diffuse soft X-ray
emitting/absorbing gas with a characteristic temperature of $\sim 10^6$ K
resides primarily in and around the Galactic disk and bulge. In the solar
neighborhood, for example, this gas has a characteristic vertical scale height
of $\sim 1$ kpc. This conclusion does not exclude the presence of a
larger-scale, probably much hotter, and lower density circum-Galactic hot
medium, which is required to explain observations of various high-velocity
clouds. This hot medium may be a natural product of the stellar feedback in the
context of the galaxy formation and evolution.
