Sulfur, Chlorine, and Argon Abundances in Planetary Nebulae. IIB. Abundances in a Southern Sample

We have undertaken a large spectroscopic survey of over 80 planetary nebulae with the goal of providing a homogeneous spectroscopic database between 3600 and 9600 Å, as well as a set of consistently determined abundances, especially for oxygen, sulfur, chlorine, and argon. In the current paper we calculate and report the S/O, Cl/O, and Ar/O abundance ratios for 45 southern planetary nebulae (predominantly type II), using our own recently observed line strengths published in a companion paper. One of the salient features of our work is the use of the near-IR lines of [S III] λλ9069, 9532 coupled with the [S III] temperature, to determine the S+2 ionic abundance. We find the following average abundances for these objects: S/O = 0.011 ± 0.0064, Cl/O = 0.00031 ± 0.00012, and Ar/O = 0.0051 ± 0.0020.