2022ApJ...931....9L

We report on the first uniform and systematic study of dust and molecular gas in nearby molecular clouds. We use surveys of dust extinction and emission to determine the opacity and map the distribution of the dust within a dozen local clouds in order to derive a uniform set of basic cloud properties. We find (1) the average dust opacity <κ_d,353> = 0.8 cm² g^–1 with variations of a factor of ∼2 between clouds, (2) cloud probability density functions are exquisitely described by steeply falling power laws with a narrow range of slope, and (3) a tight M_GMC ∼R_GMC² scaling relation for the cloud sample, indicative of a cloud population with an exactingly constant average surface density above a common fixed boundary. We compare these results to uniformly analyzed CO surveys. We measure the CO mass conversion factors and assess the efficacy of CO for tracing the physical properties of molecular clouds. We find <α_CO> = 4.31 ± 0.67 M_☉ (K km s^–1 pc²)^–1 (corresponding to X_CO = 1.97 x10²⁰ cm^–2(K km s^–1)^–1). We demonstrate that CO observations are a poor tracer of column density and structure on sub-cloud spatial scales. On cloud scales, CO observations can provide measurements consistent with those of the dust, provided data are analyzed in a similar, self-consistent fashion. Measurements of average giant molecular cloud surface density are sensitive to choice of cloud boundary. Care must be exercised to adopt common fixed boundaries when comparing surface densities for cloud populations within and between galaxies.