Comparison of Discrete Sources in Radio and Halpha Surveys of the Magellanic Clouds and the Potential for the New Halpha Survey

Abstract

We present a comparison between the latest Parkes radio surveys (Filipovic et al. 1995, 1996, 1997) and Halpha surveys of the Magellanic Clouds (Kennicutt & Hodge 1986). We have found 180 discrete sources in common for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 40 in the field of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Most of these sources (95%) are HII regions and supernova remnants (SNRs). A comparison of the radio and Halpha flux densities shows a very good correlation and we note that many of the Magellanic Clouds SNRs are embedded in HII regions.