The GBT Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey: Tracing the Diffuse Ionized Gas
  around the Giant HII Region W43
  The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS) is a
fully-sampled radio recombination line (RRL) survey of the inner Galaxy at
C-band (4-8 GHz). We average together ~15 Hn$\alpha$ RRLs within the receiver
bandpass to improve the spectral signal-to-noise ratio. The average beam size
for the RRL observations at these frequencies is ~2'. We grid these data to
have spatial and velocity spacings of 30" and 0.5 km/s, respectively. Here we
discuss the first RRL data from GDIGS: a six square-degree-area surrounding the
Galactic HII region complex W43. We attempt to create a map devoid of emission
from discrete HII regions and detect RRL emission from the diffuse ionized gas
(DIG) across nearly the entire mapped area. We estimate the intensity of the
DIG emission by a simple empirical model, taking only the HII region locations,
angular sizes, and RRL intensities into account. The DIG emission is
predominantly found at two distinct velocities: ~40 km/s and ~100 km/s. While
the 100 km/s component is associated with W43 at a distance of ~6 kpc, the
origin of the 40 km/s component is less clear. Since the distribution of the 40
km/s emission cannot be adequately explained by ionizing sources at the same
velocity, we hypothesize that the plasma at the two velocity components is
interacting, placing the 40 km/s DIG at a similar distance as the 100 km/s
emission. We find a correlation between dust temperature and integrated RRL
intensity, suggesting that the same radiation field that heats the dust also
maintains the ionization of the DIG.
