Correction For Faraday Rotation Research Articles

Properties of the jet in M87 revealed by its helical structure imaged with the VLBA at 8 and 15 GHz

ABSTRACT We present full-track high-resolution radio observations of the jet of the galaxy M87 at 8 and 15 GHz. These observations were taken over three consecutive days in 2009 May using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), one antenna of the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Effelsberg 100 m telescope. Our produced images have dynamic ranges exceeding 20 000:1 and resolve linear scales down to approximately 100 Schwarzschild radii, revealing a limb-brightened jet and a faint, steep spectrum counter-jet. We performed jet-to-counter-jet analysis, which helped estimate the physical parameters of the flow. The rich internal structure of the jet is dominated by three helical threads, likely produced by the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability developing in a supersonic flow with a Mach number of approximately 20 and an enthalpy ratio of around 0.3. We produce a clean imaging bias-corrected 8–15 GHz spectral index image, which shows spectrum flattening in regions of helical thread intersections. This further supports the KH origin of the observed internal structure of the jet. We detect polarized emission in the jet at distances of approximately 20 milliarcseconds from the core and find Faraday rotation which follows a transverse gradient across the jet. We apply Faraday rotation correction to the polarization position angle and find that the position angle changes as a function of distance from the jet axis, which suggests the presence of a helical magnetic field.

Constraints on the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission from WMAP and Faraday-corrected S-PASS data

We constrain the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission, βs, by correlating the recently released 2.3 GHz S-Band Polarization All Sky Survey (S-PASS) data with the 23 GHz 9-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) sky maps. We subdivide the S-PASS field, which covers the southern ecliptic hemisphere, into 95 15° ×15° regions and estimate the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission within each region using a simple but robust T–T plot technique. Three different versions of the S-PASS data are considered, corresponding to: no correction for Faraday rotation; Faraday correction based on the rotation measure model presented by the S-PASS team; or Faraday correction based on a rotation measure model presented by Hutschenreuter and Enßlin. We find that the correlation between S-PASS and WMAP is strongest when applying the S-PASS model. Adopting this correction model, we find that the mean spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission gradually steepens from βs ≈ −2.8 at low Galactic latitudes to βs ≈ −3.3 at high Galactic latitudes, in good agreement with previously published results. The flat spectral index at the low Galactic latitudes is likely partly due to depolarization effects. Finally, we consider two special cases defined by the BICEP2 and SPIDER fields and obtain mean estimates of βBICEP2 = −3.22 ± 0.06 and βSPIDER = −3.21 ± 0.03, respectively. Adopting the bandpass filtered WMAP 23 GHz sky map to only include angular scales between 2° and 10° as a spatial template, we constrain the root-mean-square synchrotron polarization amplitude to be less than 0.03 μK (0.009 μK) at 90 GHz (150 GHz) for the BICEP2 field, corresponding roughly to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of r ≲ 0.02 (r ≲ 0.005). Very similar constraints are obtained for the SPIDER field. A comparison with a similar analysis performed in the 23–33 GHz range suggests a flattening of about Δβs ∼ 0.1 ± 0.2 from low to higher frequencies, but with no statistical significance due to high uncertainties.

Faraday Rotation Correction for the SMAP Radiometer

Faraday rotation is an important issue for remote sensing of parameters such as soil moisture and ocean salinity, which are best done at low microwave frequency (e.g., L-band). Modern instruments such as the radiometer on the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite and the Aquarius radiometers include polarimetric radiometer channels specifically to implement a correction for Faraday rotation. This works well over ocean, but it is known that over inhomogeneous scenes, such as a land/water mixture, significant errors can occur. This is a particularly important issue for the newest L-band sensor in space, the radiometer on the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, where the goal is remote sensing over land (soil moisture) and where the conical scan induces rapid variation in Faraday rotation. Analysis is presented here of the issues associated with retrieving Faraday rotation using the SMAP geometry and antenna pattern. It is shown that, in addition to scenes with a mixture of land and water, scenes with significant vegetation canopy are also associated with large errors in the retrieved Faraday rotation. Examples from the SMAP radiometer support the analysis.

Aquarius: Status and recent results

AbstractAquarius is a combination active/passive instrument at L band designed to map sea surface salinity globally from space. The radiometer (passive) is the primary instrument for retrieving salinity, and the scatterometer (active) provides information to correct for a major source of error, sea surface roughness (waves). In addition, the radiometer includes a number of special features designed to meet the goal for this challenging measurement, including measurement of the third Stokes parameter to help with the correction for Faraday rotation and rapid sampling to help with the mitigation of radio frequency interference. Aquarius was launched on 10 June 2011 aboard the Aquarius/SAC‐D observatory and has been working well. The salinity retrieval continues to improve, and the special features suggest the potential for new applications of remote sensing from space at L band.

Effects of Antenna Cross-Polarization Coupling on the Brightness Temperature Retrieval at L-Band

Retrieval of the brightness temperature (TB) at the L-band is studied in the context of the remote sensing of ocean surface salinity. The measurement of antenna temperature and the retrieval of TB are simulated with a radiative transfer model and an observing system model of an orbiting spacecraft. Two sets of antenna gain patterns are used: 1) theoretical analysis and 2) measurements of a 1/10th-size scale model. The latter set notably shows the large cross-polarization coupling from the first Stokes transmit into the third Stokes receive. The large cross-polarization coupling causes an error of up to 4° in the estimate of the Faraday rotation angle (the size of the angle itself is mostly less than 15° in the severe ionospheric condition). By this amount of the error, an additional rotation is introduced to the retrieval of the second and third Stokes TBs in front of the feed horn before the Faraday rotation correction. The additional rotation also degrades the performance of the antenna pattern correction (APC). However, when the Faraday rotation correction is performed by the square sum of the two retrieved Stokes, the retrieved TB below the ionosphere and at the top of the atmosphere after the Faraday correction becomes insensitive to the additional rotation (i.e., being insensitive to the error in the Faraday angle estimate and the rotational error in the APC). The formal proof of the insensitivity is presented. The first and second Stokes TBs at the top of the atmosphere observed at 5.6-s intervals from space may be retrieved with an error smaller than 0.1-K rms without the accurate ancillary information of the gain pattern and the Faraday rotation angle, assuming correct calibration, 0.08 K NEΔT for the radiometer noise, and accurate correction or flagging of the solar and galaxy radiation.

Eliminating the influence of Faraday rotation on passive microwave remote sensing from space

Faraday rotation (FR) is one of the important error sources for passive microwave remote sensing from space. In this paper, the principle of FR variation is studied. The influence of FR on accuracy for microwave radiometer measurement is analyzed. We concentrate on FR correction both at 1.4 GHz for the orthogonal channel brightness temperature Tv and at 10.7 GHz for the correlative channel brightness temperature U. By using the simulated observational data of spaceborne microwave radiometry at one point in Hainan province in 2006, we compare the effects of two approaches: correction by auxiliary data (IRI model correction) and correction by polarimetric mode (Yueh and Ribó methods). Noise generated by the Monte Carlo mode is included in the simulation. Then a new method of using TEC data released by international GNSS service (IGS) is proposed. For correction of Tv at 1.4 GHz, correction made by polarimetric mode is better than that by auxiliary data. Yueh method is best in effectiveness while IRI model method is worst. For the correction of U at 10.7 GHz, the correction by polarimetric mode is invalid, only correction by auxiliary data is valid. IGS data method greatly improves the correction accuracy and can replace the method of IRI model for nearly real time correction or final data correction.

IMPROVING THE CORRECTION ACCURACY OF FARADAY ROTATION BY USING TEC DATA RELEASED BY IGS

Faraday rotation induced when electromagnetic wave penetrates through ionosphere is the major source for the cross polarization in observed Stokes brightness temperature with a polarimetric microwave radiometer. Faraday rotation correction employing TEC (total electron content) data generated by IRI (international reference ionosphere) model can not meet polarization rotation correction accuracy in some low latitude regions. To improve the correction accuracy, the following two methods were used: 1.integrating Faraday rotation angle along observation path and 2.correcting Faraday rotation by using TEC data released by IGS. Analysis results show that the first method is hardly helpful to improve the correction accuracy, while the second one can improve Faraday rotation correction accuracy considerably. By using TEC data, the correction method can satisfy the correction accuracy of polarization rotation angles which a polarimetric microwave radiometer demands.

Compensation of Faraday Rotation in Multipolarization Scatterometry

Spaceborne remote sensors operating at L-band and lower frequencies can significantly be affected by Faraday rotation (FR) as their signals pass through the Earth's ionosphere. A method of compensating for FR in multipolarization scatterometry is introduced, which utilizes an ancillary estimate of the FR angle to retrieve corrected polarized scattered powers. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the behavior of the FR correction process when radar speckle, instrument errors, and errors in the ancillary FR angle estimate are introduced.

Calibration of Polarimetric PALSAR Imagery Affected by Faraday Rotation Using Polarization Orientation

For spaceborne polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR), it is important to ensure the removal of both polarimetric system distortion and the effect of Faraday rotation. This paper proposes a new calibration method to derive the system distortion using polarization orientation (PO) induced in built-up areas and applies to Phased-Array-Type L-Band SAR (PALSAR) calibration. Faraday rotation is corrected by the circular-polarization-based method from the distortion matrix (DM)-calibrated data. The derived DMs do not coincide with those by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), but our calibration results compare well to JAXA's results in PO angles and calibrator's responses. The two results satisfy polarimetric calibration requirements, and the cross-polarized isolation improves by more than 5 dB after Faraday rotation correction following DM calibration-even in the case of small Faraday rotation (-2deg to -0.5deg). The proposed method is robust to noise and is useful when using an area of mixed polarimetric response for calibration. This method is also applicable to a large crosstalk system and the case of large Faraday rotation.

Test of Time-Reversal Invariance Using the Mössbauer Transmission of the 73-keV Transition inIr193

The real and imaginary parts of the $E2\ensuremath{-}M1$ mixing ratio of the 73-keV transition in ${\mathrm{Ir}}^{193}$ have been determined in an arrangement that requires no correction for Faraday rotation. The values $\mathrm{Re}\ensuremath{\delta}=+0.556\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.010$ and $\mathrm{Im}\ensuremath{\delta}=(+0.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.1)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ result in a phase angle between $E2$ and $M1$ of $\ensuremath{\eta}=(+1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3.8)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, thus showing no evidence for $T$ non-conservation.