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We present results from the Herschel Space Observatory Open Time Key Program to study the diffuse interstellar medium by sampling CII line emission throughout the Galactic disk, entitled Galactic Observations of the Terahertz C+ Line (GOT C+). Star formation activity is regulated by pressures in the interstellar medium, which in turn depend on heating and cooling rates, modulated by the gravitational potential, and shock and turbulent pressures. To understand these processes we need information about the diffuse atomic and diffuse molecular gas cloud properties. The ionized carbon CII fine structure line at 1.9 THz is an important tracer of the atomic gas in the diffuse regions and the atomic to molecular cloud transformation. We report on the properties of the diffuse ISM derived by the first observations of CII taken with HIFI on Herschel, combined with HI and CO observations and discuss their importance from the perspective of the earliest phase of star formation.
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