Probing fine-scale ionospheric structure with the very large array radio telescope

Abstract

High-resolution (1 arcmin) astronomical imaging at low frequency (≤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 10-3 TECU km-1 (1 TECU = 1012 cm-2) accuracy over spatial scales of under 10 km to over 100 km. We use data from the VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey (VLSS), a nearly complete 74 MHz survey of the entire sky visible to the VLA telescope in Socorro, New Mexico. These data comprise over 500 hr 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 (hundreds of kilometers, rather than tens of kilometers). © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.