Keywords :
galaxies spiral; Galaxy: structure; ISM: clouds; stars: massive
Abstract:The Columbia University-Universidad de Chile CO Survey of the southern Milky Way is used to separate the CO(1-0) emission of the fourth Galactic quadrant within the solar circle into its dominant components, giant molecular clouds (GMCs). After the subtraction of an axisymmetric model of the CO background emission in the inner southern Galaxy, 92 GMCs are identified, and for 87 of them the twofold distance ambiguity is solved. Their total molecular mass is M(H_2_)=1.14+/-0.05x10^8^M_{sun}_, accounting for around 40% of the molecular mass estimated from an axisymmetric analysis of the H_2_ volume density in the Galactic disk, M(H_2_)_disk_=3.03x10^8^M_{sun}_. The large-scale spiral structure in the southern Galaxy, within the
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