Abstract Details

Name: Sarvesh Mangla
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology Indore
Conference ID: ASI2021_344
Title : Study of equatorial ionosphere with Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)
Authors and Co-Authors : Sarvesh Mangla (Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore 453552, India), Abhirup Datta (Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore 453552, India)
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : In recent times, radio interferometers are not only used to study astronomical sources but have also been used to study Earth's Ionosphere. For sub-GHz frequencies observations, Earth's ionosphere is dynamic, and it is hard to calibrate the effects on radio frequencies observations. We have used a bright point cosmic radio source with GMRT to study the ionosphere at a sub-GHz frequency to demonstrate this telescope's capability. GMRT array configuration and its geographic location make this interferometer study geophysically sensitive regions between the magnetic equator and the equatorial ionization anomaly's northern crest. In this study, we have shown that this interferometer can measure differential total electron content (TEC) between antenna pair with an accuracy of ~ mTECU. The TEC gradient has also been computed using two methods. One shows the gradient over the full array, and other is equipped to measure small-scale fluctuations in two dimensional TEC gradient surface. Furthermore, we introduce a method to do spectral analysis on these measured TEC gradients to detect and characterize travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs). As a result, we have shown that a sensitive interferometer like GMRT is well equipped to observe and characterize ionospheric disturbances.