The Nature of the Soft X-ray Emitting Region in the Direction of the North Polar Spur

The spatial structure of the X-ray sky in the direction of the North Polar Spur was examined in two energy bands, the B band (0.10 to 0.18 keV) and the C band (0.15 to 0.28 keV). A model with two emitting regions, one local with unabsorbed emission, and the other more distant with emission partially absorbed by spatially varying amounts was investigated. Using the distribution of atomic hydrogen as a measure of absorbing material, this model was used to predict the flux in the direction of the North Polar Spur. The predicted flux was compared to the data obtained from several sounding rocket flights. The derived flux was found to correlate well with the observed data.