The GBT Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS): Survey Overview and First Data Release


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The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS) traces ionized gas in the Galactic midplane by measuring $4-8$GHz radio recombination line (RRL) emission. The nominal survey zone is $32.3^{circ}> l >-5^{circ}$, $|b|<0.5^{circ}$, but coverage extends above and below the plane in select fields, and additionally includes the areas around W47 ($l simeq 37.5^{circ}$) and W49 ($l simeq 43^{circ}$). GDIGS simultaneously observes 22 Hn$alpha$ (15 usable), 25 Hn$beta$ (18 usable), and 8 Hn$gamma$ RRLs (all usable), as well as multiple molecular line transitions (including of H$_2^{13}$CO, H$_2$CO, and CH$_3$OH). Here, we describe the GDIGS survey parameters and characterize the RRL data, focusing primarily on the Hn$alpha$ data. We produce sensitive data cubes by averaging the usable RRLs, after first smoothing to a common spectral resolution of 0.5km/s and a spatial resolution of 2.65 for Hn$alpha$, 2.62 for Hn$beta$, and 2.09 for Hn$gamma$. The average spectral noise per spaxel in the hna data cubes is $sim!10$mK ($sim!5$mJy/beam). This sensitivity allows GDIGS to detect RRLs from plasma throughout the inner Galaxy. The GDIGS Hn$alpha$ data are sensitive to emission measures $EM gtrsim 1100$cm$^{-6}$pc, which corresponds to a mean electron density $langle n_e rangle gtrsim 30$cm$^{-3}$ for a 1pc path length or $langle n_e rangle gtrsim 1$cm$^{-3}$ for a 1kpc path length.

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