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Title: ARCADE 2 OBSERVATIONS OF GALACTIC RADIO EMISSION

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ; ;  [1];  [2]; ;  [3];  [4];  [5];
  1. Code 665, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
  3. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, 550W 120th Street, Mail Code 5247, New York, NY 10027-6902 (United States)
  4. Department of Physics, Broida Hall, Mail Code 9530, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
  5. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States)

We use absolutely calibrated data from the ARCADE 2 flight in 2006 July to model Galactic emission at frequencies 3, 8, and 10 GHz. The spatial structure in the data is consistent with a superposition of free-free and synchrotron emission. Emission with spatial morphology traced by the Haslam 408 MHz survey has spectral index {beta}{sub synch} = -2.5 {+-} 0.1, with free-free emission contributing 0.10 {+-} 0.01 of the total Galactic plane emission in the lowest ARCADE 2 band at 3.15 GHz. We estimate the total Galactic emission toward the polar caps using either a simple plane-parallel model with csc |b| dependence or a model of high-latitude radio emission traced by the COBE/FIRAS map of C II emission. Both methods are consistent with a single power law over the frequency range 22 MHz to 10 GHz, with total Galactic emission toward the north polar cap T{sub Gal} = 10.12 {+-} 0.90 K and spectral index {beta} = -2.55 {+-} 0.03 at reference frequency 0.31 GHz. Emission associated with the plane-parallel structure accounts for only 30% of the observed high-latitude sky temperature, with the residual in either a Galactic halo or an isotropic extragalactic background. The well-calibrated ARCADE 2 maps provide a new test for spinning dust emission, based on the integrated intensity of emission from the Galactic plane instead of cross-correlations with the thermal dust spatial morphology. The Galactic plane intensity measured by ARCADE 2 is fainter than predicted by models without spinning dust and is consistent with spinning dust contributing 0.4 {+-} 0.1 of the Galactic plane emission at 23 GHz.

OSTI ID:
21576704
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 734, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/734/1/4; ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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