A global view on star formation: The GLOSTAR Galactic plane survey XII. Effelsberg's continuum view and data release

TL;DR

This paper presents a high-quality, large-scale radio continuum and polarization survey of the Galactic plane using the Effelsberg 100-m telescope, filling a gap in existing data and enabling detailed studies of Galactic magnetic fields and extended structures.

Contribution

It provides the highest-quality single-dish radio continuum data at 4.89 and 6.82 GHz, effectively recovering flux missed by interferometric surveys, and offers publicly available data for Galactic studies.

Findings

Recovered over 90% of flux density missed by VLA D-array data.

Achieved improved sensitivity and polarization mapping of Galactic magnetic fields.

Supplied the most comprehensive single-dish radio continuum survey at these frequencies.

Abstract

Extended radio continuum emission and its linear polarization play a key role in probing large-scale structures of synchrotron and free-free emission in the Milky Way. Despite the existence of many radio continuum surveys, sensitive and high-angular-resolution single-dish surveys of extended radio continuum emission remain scarce. As part of the GLObal view of STAR formation (GLOSTAR) survey, we will also crucially complement the existing data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) by addressing the missing zero-spacing gap. Within the framework of the GLOSTAR Galactic plane survey, we performed large-scale radio continuum imaging observations toward the Galactic plane in the range $-2^{\circ}< \ell <60^{\circ}$ and $|b|<1.1^{\circ}$, as well as the Cygnus X region with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope. We present the Effelsberg continuum survey at 4.89GHz and 6.82GHz including linear polarization with angular resolutions of 145$^{\prime\prime}$ and 106$^{\prime\prime}$, respectively. The survey has been corrected for missing large-scale emission using available low-angular-resolution surveys. Comparison with previous single-dish surveys indicates that our continuum survey represents the highest-quality single-dish data collected to date at this frequency. More than 90\% of the flux density missed by the VLA D-array data is effectively recovered by the Effelsberg continuum survey. The improved sensitivity and angular resolution of our survey enable reliable mapping of Galactic magnetic field structures, with polarization data that are less affected by depolarization than in previous surveys. The GLOSTAR single-dish continuum data will be released publicly, offering a valuable resource for studying extended objects including HII regions, supernova remnants, diffuse interstellar medium, and Galactic structure. (Abridged)