Observations of linear polarization of background galactic radio emission in selected directions at 8.3 GHz.

Polarization observations of the Galactic radio emission at 8.3 GHz were made by the 32-m Medicina (Italy) radio telescope in four pixels (HPBW=4.[sup ′]8). A method of tracking around the upper culmination was used in order to use the rotation of the parallactic angle for detecting the weak linearly polarized Galactic radio emission against the background of relatively strong and variable spurious and instrumental polarization. The well known source 3C 286 was used as calibrator. As a result the brightness temperatures of linearly polarized component of the Galactic radio emission and positions angles were measured for all pixels. Comparison was made for the pixels in the first Galactic quadrant with Duncan et al. 2695 MHz polarization measurements and as a result spectral indexes and rotation measures were determined. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]