2012MNRAS.424.1817L

HH 223 is the optical counterpart of a larger scale H₂outflow, driven by the protostellar source VLA 2A, in L723. Its poorly collimated and rather chaotic morphology suggested Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) as an appropriate option to map the emission in order to derive the physical conditions and kinematics. Here we present new results based on IFS observations made with the INTEGRAL system at the William Herschel Telescope. The brightest knots of HH 223 ( ∼ 16arcsec, ≃ 0.02pc at a distance of 300pc) were mapped with a single pointing in the spectral range 6200–7700Å. We obtained emission-line intensity maps for Hα, [NII] 6584Å and [SII] 6716, 6731Å and explored the distribution of the excitation and electron density from [NII]/Hα, [SII]/Hα and [SII] 6716/6731 line-ratio maps. Maps of the radial velocity field were obtained. We analysed the three-dimensional kinematics by combining the knot radial velocities derived from IFS data with the knot proper motions derived from multi-epoch narrow-band images. The intensity maps built from IFS data reproduced the morphology found in the narrow-band images well. We checked the results obtained from previous long-slit observations with those derived from IFS spectra extracted with a similar spatial sampling. At the positions intersected by the slit, the physical conditions and kinematics derived from IFS are compatible with those derived from long-slit data. In contrast, significant discrepancies were found when the results from long-slit data were compared with the ones derived from IFS spectra extracted at positions shifted a few arcsec from those intersected by the slit. This clearly revealed IFS observations as the best choice to obtain a reliable picture of the HH emission properties.