1995A&A...294...57O

Reddenings and distances of 1883 LMC foreground stars were recently derived by Oestreicher et al., taking into account metallicity effects. This large data sample allowed not only to derive a reddening map of high angular resolution, but also to calculate the distance distribution of the stars. With a scale height of (105±1)pc the early type stars are located in the galactic disc. A component of stars situated above the disc with a scale height of (417±57)pc is visible, too. So the first component belongs to old population I, the second to disc population I. The F stars of solar metallicity are also concentrated to the galactic plane, their scale height is (95±3)pc. When going to metal-poor stars, the scale height increases rapidly to (249±18)pc and (507±161)pc for mean metallicities of -0.6dex and -1.2dex, respectively. Thus these stars belong to disc population I or to intermediate population II. The scale height of the late type giants increases with decreasing metallicity, too. Values of (254±12)pc, (387±82)pc and (526±219)pc for mean metallicities of 0.0dex, -0.5dex and -1.1dex, respectively, imply, that these stars also belong to disc population I or to intermediate population II.