"Observations of Intermediate and High Velocity Clouds towards the Magellanic System"

We present interstellar absorption line observations in CaII and NaI towards the Magellanic 
clouds in order to understand the nature of the intermediate and high-velocity gas in these 
sightlines. The Magellanic system not only comprises the LMC and SMC, but also the Bridge, 
Stream and I/HVC components visible in HI. It has been postulated that such I/HVC gas 
may eventually impact on the Galactic disc and/or be part of an outflow from the LMC. To 
characterise the clouds we present FEROS, FLAMES and UVES observations of background 
stellar probes to measure the small- and large-scale structure of the I/HVCs, obtain column 
density measurements and finally compare with simple models of the interstellar medium.

Jonathan Smoker, Andy Fox and Francis Keenan