NGC 891 Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectroscopy

We find that the photoelectric heating efficiency of the gas varies from a mean of 3.5x10^-3^ in the centre up to 8x10^-3^ at increasing radial and vertical distances in the disc. We compare the observed flux of the FIR cooling lines and total IR emission with the predicted flux from a PDR model to determine the gas density, surface temperature and the strength of the incident far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation field, G_0_.

Resolving details on physical scales of ~0.6kpc, a pixel-by-pixel analysis reveals that the majority of the PDRs in NGC 891's disc have hydrogen densities of 1<log(n/cm^-3^)<3.5 experiencing an incident FUV radiation field with strengths of 1.7<logG_0_<3. Although these values we derive for most of the disc are consistent with the gas properties found in PDRs in the spiral arms and inter-arm regions of M51, observed radial trends in n and G_0_ appear to be sensitive to varying optical thickness in the lines, demonstrating the importance of accurately accounting for optical depth effects when interpreting observations of high inclination systems.