Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2017
The evidence for the existence of molecular clouds at large distances from the Galactic plane is reviewed. The molecular clouds at high Galactic latitudes are shown to be largely confined to the Galactic plane. There is evidence for one giant molecular cloud as much as four scale heights from the Galactic plane, but given the sample size from which the cloud is drawn, it is reasonable to suppose that it is part of the tail of the thin disk population. There is weak evidence that one star-forming molecular cloud may have originated in the Galactic halo. On the basis of kinematic evidence however, it is shown that there are three molecular clouds identified at high galactic latitude that, if not at high z, are likely to have resulted from interaction with gas in the halo. Understanding how these clouds have formed is likely to be an important key to understanding how the halo interacts with the disk gas.