The warm gas atmosphere of the HD 100546 disk seen by Herschel

Context. With the Herschel Space Observatory, lines of simple molecules (C+, O, and high-J lines of CO, Jup ≳ 14) have been observed in the atmosphere of protoplanetary disks. When combined with ground-based data on [C i], all principle forms of carbon can be studied. These data allow us to test model predictions for the main carbon-bearing species and verify the presence of a warm surface layer. The absence of neutral carbon [C i], which is predicted by models to be strong, can then be interpreted together with ionized carbon [C ii] and carbon monoxide.