A Study of the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of H II Regions

Infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of several isolated star--forming regions were derived from observations made by the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) on NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Recently obtained near--IR photometric observations of five regions will be used in conjunction with 2 microns spectroscopy to locate and classify visually obscured O and early--B stars. Our objective is to learn in some detail how the stellar population and the local interstellar environment affect the IR SED.