\begin{table}%t2 \par \caption{\label{table:IRDC18223}Comparison of the different observational techniques for IRDC~18223-3.} %\centerline \begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline\hline \noalign{\smallskip} Data & Resolution & Column density& Optical depth& Contrast \\ & (arcsec) & (10$^{22}$ cm $^{-2}$) & at 8~$\mu$m & ($I_{\rm bg}/I_{\rm IRDC}$) \\ \noalign{\smallskip} \hline \noalign{\smallskip} 8~$\mu$m GLIMPSE & 3 & 2.3 & 0.95&2.5 \\ 1.2 mm IRAM$^{{a}}$& 11 & 5.9 & 2.4 &11 \\ 3.2 mm PdBI$^{{b}}$ & 5\farcs8 $\times$ 2\farcs4 & 45 & 19 & 1.8e+08 \\ 1.3 mm SMA$^{{c}}$ & 1\farcs3 $\times$ 1\farcs4 & 93 & 40 &1.8e+17 \\ \noalign{\smallskip} \hline \end{tabular} \par \smallskip $^{{a}}$ \citet{2002ApJ...566..945B}; $^{{b}}$ \citet{2005ApJ...634L.185B}; $^{{c}}$ Fallscheer et~al.~(2009, in preparation). \par \end{table}