The G332 molecular cloud ring: I. Morphology and physical
  characteristics
  We present a morphological and physical analysis of a Giant Molecular Cloud
(GMC) using the carbon monoxide isotopologues ($^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, C$^{18}$O
$^{3}P_{2}\rightarrow$ $^{3}P_{1}$) survey of the Galactic Plane (Mopra CO
Southern Galactic Plane Survey), supplemented with neutral carbon maps from the
HEAT telescope in Antarctica. The giant molecular cloud structure (hereinafter
the ring) covers the sky region $332^\circ$ < $\ell$ < $333^\circ$ and
$\mathit{b}$ = $\pm 0.5^\circ$ (hereinafter the G332 region). The mass of the
ring and its distance are determined to be respectively
~2$\times10^{5}\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and ~3.7 kpc from Sun. The dark molecular
gas fraction, estimated from the $^{13}$CO and [CI] lines, is $\sim17\%$ for a
CO T$_{\mathrm{ex}}$ between [10,20 K]. Comparing the [CI] integrated intensity
and N(H$_{2}$) traced by $^{13}$CO and $^{12}$CO, we define an
X$\mathrm{_{CI}^{809}}$ factor, analogous to the usual X$_{\mathrm{co}}$,
through the [CI] line. X$\mathrm{_{CI}^{809}}$ ranges between
[1.8,2.0]$\times10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\mathrm{K}^{-1}\mathrm{km}^{-1}\mathrm{s}$.
We examined local variation in X$_{\mathrm{co}}$ and T$_{\mathrm{ex}}$ across
the cloud, and find in regions where the star formation activity is not in an
advanced state, an increase in the mean and dispersion of the X$_{\mathrm{co}}$
factor as the excitation temperature decreases. We present a catalogue of
C$^{18}$O clumps within the cloud. The star formation (SF) activity ongoing in
the cloud shows a correlation with T$_{\mathrm{ex}}$, [CI] and CO emissions,
and anti-correlation with X$_{\mathrm{co}}$, suggesting a North-South spatial
gradient in the SF activity. We propose a method to disentangle dust emission
across the Galaxy, using HI and $^{13}$CO data. We describe Virtual Reality
(VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) data visualisation techniques for the analysis
of radio astronomy data.
