Abstract Details

Name: Sarvesh Mangla
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology, Indore
Conference ID: ASI2020_303
Title : Study of ionospheric TEC gradients with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at sub-GHz frequencies.
Authors and Co-Authors : Sarvesh Mangla and Abhirup Datta
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : Radio interferometers have given us an arena of tools to analyze the astrophysical sources with unmatched resolving power. Recently, these interferometers have also been used to model the Earth's Ionosphere due to its characteristic frequency, which falls into the radio range. Here, we have used the observation of a bright cosmic radio source (3C68.2) with the GMRT at the sub-GHz frequency to demonstrate the capability of this interferometer to study the ionosphere. The same source has been observed in different seasons to see the source on two sperate occasions, which give the ability to explore the ionosphere over sunrise and sunset. Due to the location and structure of GMRT array, it is an excellent candidate to study geophysically sensitive regions between the magnetic equator and the northern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly. We have shown this instrument is capable of measuring differential Total Electron Content (TEC) parameters between antenna pairs with a precision of ~ mTECU. Further, measurement of the TEC gradient has also been computed for the GMRT array, and small scale fluctuation in the TEC surface has also been shown. These fluctuations are a useful probe of measuring micro-scale variation in the ionospheric plasma. As a result, we have demonstrated that a sensitive instrument like GMRT can also be used to observe ionospheric fluctuations.