A High Resolution Survey of the Galactic Plane at 408MHz

Abstract

The interstellar medium is a complex "ecosystem" with gas constituents in the atomic, molecular and ionized states, dust, magnetic fields, and relativistic particles. The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey has imaged these constituents at multiple radio and infrared frequencies with angular resolution of the order of arcminutes. This paper presents radio continuum data at 408 MHz over the area of $52^\circ \leqslant {\ell }\leqslant 193^\circ $, $-6\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 5\leqslant b\leqslant 8\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 5$, with an extension to $b=21^\circ $ in the range of $97^\circ \leqslant {\ell }\leqslant 120^\circ $, with angular resolution $2\buildrel{\,\prime}\over{.} 8\times 2\buildrel{\,\prime}\over{.} 8$ cosecδ. Observations were made with the Synthesis Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory as part of the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. The calibration of the survey using existing radio source catalogs is described. The accuracy of 408 MHz flux densities from the data is 6%. Information on large structures has been incorporated into the data using the single-antenna survey of Haslam et al. The paper presents the data, describes how it can be accessed electronically, and gives examples of applications of the data to ISM research.