  The disks around some Herbig Be stars have been observed to be more compact
than the expected dust sublimation radius for such objects, with highly
refractory dust grains and optically thick gas emission having been proposed as
possible explanations for this phenomenon. Our aim is to search for direct
evidence for the presence of hot gas inside of the expected dust sublimation
radius of MWC147. By combining VLTI/AMBER spectro-interferometry (R=12,000)
with CRIRES spectroscopy (R=100,000) we can both spectrally and spatially
resolve the Br-gamma line-emitting gas around MWC147. Our interferometric
visibility modelling of MWC147 indicates the presence of a compact continuum
disk with a close to face-on orientation. We model the continuum with an
inclined Gaussian, as well as a ring with a radius of 0.60mas (0.39au) which is
well within the expected dust sublimation radius of 1.52au. We detect no
significant change in the measured visibilities across the Br-gamma line,
indicating that the line-emitting gas is located in the same region as the
continuum-emitting disk. We fit our AMBER spectro-interferometry data with a
kinematic model of a disk in Keplerian rotation, with both the line-emitting
and continuum-emitting components of the disk originating from the same compact
region close to the central star. The presence of line-emitting gas in the same
region as the K-band continuum supports the interpretation that the K-band
continuum traces an optically-thick gas disk. Our spatially and spectrally
resolved observations of MWC147 reveal that the K-band continuum and Br-gamma
emission both originate from a similar compact region, with Br-gamma emitted
from the accretion disk or disk wind region and exhibiting a rotational
velocity profile. We conclude that we detect the presence of a compact, gaseous
accretion disk in Keplerian rotation around MWC147.
