WSRT Faraday tomography of the Galactic ISM at λ ∼ 0.86 m -: First results for a field at (l, b) = (181°, 20°)

Aims. We investigate the distribution and properties of Faraday rotating and synchrotron emitting regions in the Galactic ISM in the direction of the Galactic anti-centre. Methods. We apply Faraday tomography to a radio polarization dataset that we obtained with the WSRT. We developed a new method to calculate a linear fit to periodic data, which we use to determine rotation measures from our polarization angle data. From simulations of a Faraday screen + noise we could determine how compatible the data are with Faraday screens. Results. An unexpectedly large fraction of 14% of the lines-of-sight in our dataset show an unresolved main component in the Faraday depth spectrum. For lines-of-sight with a single unresolved component we demonstrate that a Faraday screen in front of a synchrotron emitting region that contains a turbulent magnetic field component can explain the data.