  We report the results of spectroscopic mapping observations carried out
toward the Herbig-Haro objects HH7-11 and HH54 over the 5.2 - 37 micron region
using the Infrared Spectrograph of the Spitzer Space Telescope. These
observations have led to the detection and mapping of the S(0) - S(7) pure
rotational lines of molecular hydrogen, together with emissions in fine
structure transitions of Ne+, Si+, S, and Fe+. The H2 rotational emissions
indicate the presence of warm gas with a mixture of temperatures in the range
400 - 1200 K, consistent with the expected temperature behind nondissociative
shocks of velocity ~ 10 - 20 km/s, while the fine structure emissions originate
in faster shocks of velocity 35 - 90 km/s that are dissociative and ionizing.
Maps of the H2 line ratios reveal little spatial variation in the typical
admixture of gas temperatures in the mapped regions, but show that the H2
ortho-to-para ratio is quite variable, typically falling substantially below
the equilibrium value of 3 attained at the measured gas temperatures. The
non-equilibrium ortho-to-para ratios are characteristic of temperatures as low
as ~ 50 K, and are a remnant of an earlier epoch, before the gas temperature
was elevated by the passage of a shock. Correlations between the gas
temperature and H2 ortho-to-para ratio show that ortho-to-para ratios < 0.8 are
attained only at gas temperatures below ~ 900 K; this behavior is consistent
with theoretical models in which the conversion of para- to ortho-H2 behind the
shock is driven by reactive collisions with atomic hydrogen, a process which
possesses a substantial activation energy barrier (E_A/k ~ 4000 K) and is
therefore very inefficient at low temperature.
