Polarization surveys of the Galaxy

Abstract

We report on sensitive 21cm and 11cm polarization surveys of the Galactic plane carried out with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope at arcmin angular resolution and some related work. Highly structured polarized emission is seen along the Galactic plane as well as up to very high Galactic latitudes. These observations reflect Faraday effects in the interstellar medium. Polarized foreground and background components along the line of sight, modified by Faraday rotation and depolarization, add in a complex way. The amplitudes of polarized emission features are highly frequency dependent. Small-scale components decrease in amplitude rapidly with increasing frequency. We stress the need for sensitive absolutely calibrated polarization data. These are essential for baseline setting and a correct interpretation of small-scale structures. Absolutely calibrated data are also needed to estimate the high-frequency polarized background. A recent study of polarized emission observed across the local Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud complexes indicates excessive synchrotron emission within a few hundred parsecs. These results suggest that possibly a large fraction of the Galactic high latitude total intensity and polarized emission is of local origin.