In 2008 and 2009, when a deep solar-activity minimum was observed, the total electron content of the ionosphere was measured by the radioastronomy method using the ionospheric Faraday rotation of the polarization plane of a linear-polarized component of the diffuse radio-frequency (RF) radiation of the galaxy. In the measurements performed at a frequency of 290 MHz at the Radioastronomy observatory “Staraya Pustyn” of the Radiophysical Research Institute of Nizhny Novgorod, the previously studied region of the Celestial North Pole was used. The brightness temperature was calibrated by the Cassiopeia A radio source. The time dependence of the Cassiopeia The RF radiation stream density, which was obtained in the period of 1978–2011 from the measurement results at a frequency of 290 MHz, is shown. A new method of accounting for a spurious polarized signal allowing for its time dependence was developed and used, which makes it possible to improve the measurement frequency of the time variations of total electron content of the ionosphere. This method allowed us to more accurately measure the brightness temperature of the linearly polarized component of diffuse galaxy RF radiation in the direction of the Celestial North Pole, which amounted to 0.83 ± 0.07 K at a frequency of 290 MHz. For this region of the horizon, we demonstrate the spectra of the brightness temperature and the position angle of the polarization plane of the linearly polarized component of the galaxy diffuse RF radiation ranging from meter to centimeter wavelengths, which allows us to choose the required frequency for the measurements by the radioastronomy Faraday method in the future. The values of the total electron content of the ionosphere are compared with the corresponding values from the global ionospheric maps obtained from observations of the GPS satellite signals. The difference between the average values of total electron content of the ionosphere is 1.9∙1012 cm-2 according to all radioastronomy measurements and the corresponding means from the global ionospheric maps.
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Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 55, No. 7, pp. 485–499, May 2012.
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Vinyaikin, E.N. Measurements of the total electron content of the ionosphere by the radioastronomy Faraday method. Radiophys Quantum El 55, 440–452 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11141-012-9380-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11141-012-9380-2