Dust scattered radiation in the galactic poles

Abstract

We have modeled the diffuse background at the Galactic Poles in the far-ultraviolet (FUV: 1536 Å) and the near-ultraviolet (NUV: 2316 Å). The background is well-fit using a single-scattering dust model with an offset representing the extragalactic light plus any other contribution to the diffuse background. We have found a dust albedo of 0.35–0.40 (FUV) and 0.11–0.19 in the NGP (\(b > 70^{\circ }\)) and 0.46–0.56 (FUV) and 0.31–0.33 (NUV) in the SGP (\(b < 70^{\circ })\). The differences in the albedo may reflect changes in the dust-to-gas ratio over the sky or in the dust distribution. We find offsets at zero-reddening of 273–286 and 553–581 photons \(\hbox {cm}^{-2}\) \(\hbox {s}^{-1}\) \(\hbox {sr}^{-1}\) Å\(^{-1}\) in the FUV and NUV, respectively, in the NGP with similar values in the SGP.