The authors have observed emission in the far infrared fine-structure lines of O I (63 μm) and C II (158 μm) from the bright optical reflection nebula NGC 7023. They interpret this emission as arising in a warm, atomic photodissociation region produced by the interaction of the ultraviolet radiation of the illuminating star with a molecular cloud. The far-infrared line observations are combined with ¹²CO and ¹³CO observations to estimate the density and the temperature in the photodissociation region and in the adjacent molecular cloud and to construct a detailed model for the photodissociation region in NGC 7023.
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Chokshi et al. (1988) studied this question.