arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 0905.4501astro-ph.IMastro-ph.EP
收藏

用甚大阵Radio Telescope探测电离层精细结构

Probing Fine-Scale Ionospheric Structure with the Very Large Array Radio Telescope

A. S. Cohen, H. J. A. Röttgering

摘要:

低频(150兆赫以下)高分辨率(~1弧分)天文成像只是最近才随着消除电离层失真的新校准算法的发展而变得实用。除了在观测天文学中打开一个新的窗口之外,电离层畸变的校准过程还以前所未有的方式探测电离层结构。在这里,我们探讨这种新型的电离层测量的一个方面,作为其角间距的函数的天体源对的差分折射。该测量探测视线总电子含量(TEC)的空间梯度变化,在10公里以下至100公里以上的空间尺度上达到0.001 TECU/km的精度。我们使用VLA低频巡天(VLSS; Cohen et al. 2007,AJ 134,1245)的数据,这是一个几乎完整的74 MHz巡天,可以通过位于新墨西哥州索科罗的甚大阵(VLA)望远镜看到整个天空。这些数据包括500多个小时的观测,全部以标准方式校准。虽然电离层的空间结构在每次观测中变化很大,但经过数百小时的分析,统计模式变得明显。我们提出了一个详细的描述如何中值差分折射取决于源对分离,海拔和一天中的时间。我们发现,海拔效应是大的,但几何可预测的,可以“删除”分析使用电离层的“薄壳”模型。我们发现白天的电离层空间变化比晚上大得多。这些日变化似乎影响较大的角度尺度,以更大的程度表明,他们来自相对较大的空间尺度(100公里,而不是10公里)的干扰。

英文摘要:

High resolution (~1 arcminute) astronomical imaging at low frequency (below 150 MHz) has only recently become practical with the development of new calibration algorithms for removing ionospheric distortions. In addition to opening a new window in observational astronomy, the process of calibrating the ionospheric distortions also probes ionospheric structure in an unprecedented way. Here we explore one aspect of this new type of ionospheric measurement, the differential refraction of celestial source pairs as a function of their angular separation. This measurement probes variations in the spatial gradient of the line-of-sight total electron content (TEC) to 0.001 TECU/km accuracy over spatial scales of under 10 km to over 100 km. We use data from the VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey (VLSS; Cohen et al. 2007, AJ 134, 1245), a nearly complete 74 MHz survey of the entire sky visible to the Very Large Array (VLA) telescope in Socorro, New Mexico. These data comprise over 500 hours of observations, all calibrated in a standard way. While ionospheric spatial structure varies greatly from one observation to the next, when analyzed over hundreds of hours, statistical patterns become apparent. We present a detailed characterization of how the median differential refraction depends on source pair separation, elevation and time of day. We find that elevation effects are large, but geometrically predictable and can be "removed" analytically using a "thin-shell" model of the ionosphere. We find significantly greater ionospheric spatial variations during the day than at night. These diurnal variations appear to affect the larger angular scales to a greater degree indicating that they come from disturbances on relatively larger spatial scales (100s of km, rather than 10s of km).

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑