CO column densities in dark clouds

On the assumption that the reservoir of CO in the ices is represented well by the combined abundances of solid CO and solid CO_2_ (which forms by oxidation of CO on the dust), we find that the total column density (gas+solid) correlates tightly with visual extinction (A_V_) over the range 5mag<A_V_<30mag, i.e., up to the highest extinctions covered by our sample.

The mean depletion of gas-phase CO, expressed as {delta}(CO)=N(CO)_ice_/N(CO)_total_, increases monotonically from negligible levels for A_V_<~5 to ~0.3 at A_V_=10 and ~0.6 at A_V_=30. As these results refer to line-of-sight averages, they must be considered lower limits to the actual depletion at loci deep within the cloud, which may approach unity. We show that it is plausible for such high levels of depletion to be reached in dense cores on timescales ~0.6Myr, comparable with their expected lifetimes.