Probing the ionosphere by the pulsar B0950+08 with help of RadioAstron ground-space baselines

Abstract

The ionospheric scattering of pulses emitted by PSR B0950+08 is measured using the 10-m RadioAstron Space Radio Telescope, the 300-m Arecibo Radio Telescope and the 14x25-m Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at a frequency band between 316 and 332 MHz. We analyse this phenomenon based on a simulated model of the phase difference obtained between antennas that are widely separated by nearly 25 Earth diameters. We present a technique for processing and analysing the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) at the ground stations of the ground-space interferometer. This technique allows us to derive almost synchronous half-hour structures of the TEC in the ionosphere at an intercontinental distance between the Arecibo and WSRT stations. We find that the amplitude values of the detected structures are approximately twice as large as the values for the TEC derived in the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) project. Furthermore, the values of the TEC outside these structures are almost the same as the corresponding values found by the IRI. According to a preliminary analysis, the detected structures were observed during a geomagnetic storm with a minimum Dst index of ~75 nT generated by interplanetary disturbances, and may be due to the influence of interplanetary and magnetospheric phenomena on ionospheric disturbances. We show that the Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry provides us with new opportunities to study the TEC, and we demonstrate the capabilities of this instrument to research the ionosphere.