An improved high-resolution and deep A _ { Ks } foreground dust extinction map is presented for the Galactic disk area within 295 ^ { \circ } \lesssim l \lesssim 350 ^ { \circ } , -1.0 ^ { \circ } \lesssim b \lesssim + 1.0 ^ { \circ } .
At some longitudes the map reaches up to |b| \sim 2.25 ^ { \circ } , for a total of \sim 148 deg ^ { 2 } .
The map was constructed via the Rayleigh-Jeans Color Excess ( RJCE ) technique based on deep near-infrared ( NIR ) and mid-infrared ( MIR ) photometry .
The new extinction map features a maximum bin size of 1 \arcmin , and relies on NIR observations from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey ( 2MASS ) and new data from ESO ’ s Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea ( VVV ) survey , in concert with MIR observations from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire ( GLIMPSE ) .
The VVV photometry penetrates \sim 4 magnitudes fainter than 2MASS , and provides enhanced sampling of the underlying stellar populations in this heavily obscured region .
Consequently , the new results supersede existing RJCE maps tied solely to brighter photometry , revealing a systematic underestimation of extinction in prior work that was based on shallower data .
The new high-resolution and large-scale extinction map presented here is readily available to the community through a web query interface .