Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
In this contribution, we discuss some topics in the study of dust in the local interstellar medium. The spectrum of local clouds has recently been measured using ISO and COBE, confirming in general the models of excitation and cooling of dust illuminated by the the interstellar radiation field. We discuss in some detail the spatial correlation of interstellar dust and gas and the idea that infrared emission traces the total column density of the interstellar medium, with the particular application to the formation of H2. We also show that dust is present in the nearby Loop I shell, with properties similar to average, suggesting that the walls of the Local Bubble would also have relatively ‘normal’ dust content.