{"title":"The RFI situation for a space-based low-frequency radio astronomy instrument","authors":"M. Bentum, A. Boonstra","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833521","url":null,"abstract":"Space based ultra-long wavelength radio astronomy has recently gained a lot of interest. Techniques to open the virtually unexplored frequency band below 30 MHz are becoming within reach at this moment. Due to the ionosphere and the radio interference (RFI) on Earth exploring this frequency band requires a space based or Lunar surface based solution. But where to locate such a low frequency radio telescope. Several parameters determine this decision, of which the RFI situation is one of the most important ones. In this paper we will elaborate on the expected RFI levels of space-based low-frequency instruments.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131387805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interference from global navigation satellites in future HI intensity mapping surveys","authors":"S. Harper, C. Dickinson","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833527","url":null,"abstract":"Upcoming HI intensity mapping (IM) surveys will need to achieve unprecedented levels of sensitivity in order to measure the weak integrated emission of extra-galactic HI. Such sensitive surveys will need to overcome many systematic contaminations within the data. One such contaminant originates from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Emissions from radio-navigation satellites within the GNSS broadcast across a wide-range of cosmological interesting frequencies (1164 to 1610 MHz), with an in band brightness that is comparable to the Sun. These proceedings use simulations of observations from the upcoming BINGO experiment to explore the effect of GNSS emissions on HI IM data. These simulations are not overly concerned with bright, stochastic events corresponding to a satellite transiting the BINGO main beam response, which can be removed via post-processing of the data. The principle concern is the low-level interactions of the satellites within the side lobes of the BINGO beam and out-of-band transmissions due to the frequency side lobes of the transmitter. The results of these proceedings find that the HI IM signal will be almost three orders-of-magnitude weaker than integrated emission of radio-navigation satellites interacting within the BINGO side lobes. For out-of-band interference, the simulations reveal that the emission from satellites could be comparable to HI signal almost 100 MHz away from the GNSS transmission bands. The implication of these results is that there will be increased challenges for all future HI IM observations of the dark-energy dominated epoch, which includes the proposed BINGO, FAST and SKA1-MID surveys.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126965955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adam J. Schoenwald, A. Gholian, D. Bradley, M. Wong, P. Mohammed, J. Piepmeier
{"title":"RFI detection and mitigation using independent component analysis as a pre-processor","authors":"Adam J. Schoenwald, A. Gholian, D. Bradley, M. Wong, P. Mohammed, J. Piepmeier","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833540","url":null,"abstract":"Radio-frequency interference (RFI) has negatively impacted scientific measurements of passive remote sensing satellites. This has been observed in the L-band radiometers Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) for the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, Aquarius and more recently, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP). RFI has also been observed at higher frequencies such as K band. Improvements in technology have allowed wider bandwidth digital back ends for passive microwave radiometry. A radio frequency interference detector based on complex signal kurtosis was developed to help identify corrupted measurements. This work explores the use of Independent Component Analysis (ICA) as a blind source separation (BSS) technique to pre-process radiometric signals for use with the previously developed real and complex signal kurtosis detectors.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114465000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"L-band RFI in Japan","authors":"Y. Soldo, P. de Matthaeis, D. L. Le Vine","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833542","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, three instruments have been launched into orbit with the aim of producing global maps of sea surface salinity and soil moisture using the 1400–1427 MHz band: SMOS, Aquarius and SMAP. Although this frequency band is allocated to passive measurements only, RFI (Radio-Frequency Interference) is present in the data of all three missions. On a global scale, the three sensors have observed approximately the same distribution of RFI. Japan is an important exception that has implications for the design of RFI detection algorithms. RFI in Japan is caused by a large number of emitters belonging to the same system (TV receivers) and for this reason some traditional RFI detection strategies detect little to no RFI over Japan. The study of this case has led to an improvement of the approach to detect RFI in Aquarius data.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124505501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Buch, Y. Gupta, Shruti Bhatporia, Swapnil Nalawade, K. Naik, B. Ajithkumar
{"title":"Real-time RFI excision for the GMRT wideband correlator","authors":"K. Buch, Y. Gupta, Shruti Bhatporia, Swapnil Nalawade, K. Naik, B. Ajithkumar","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833523","url":null,"abstract":"Real-time RFI excision is developed for the GMRT wideband correlator as part of the upgraded GMRT (uGMRT) project. The technique uses robust statistical estimation and a nonlinear filter to excise broadband and narrowband RFI. This paper provides an overview of the technique and its real-time implementation. The results showing improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio and cross-correlation performance are also provided.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124049350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Real time prediction, detection and co-existing with satellite interference at GMRT","authors":"P. Raybole, S. Sureshkumar, S. Katore, S. Rai","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833539","url":null,"abstract":"Modern radio telescopes were designed for wider bandwidth to use the interference free bands for radio astronomy. Many intentional radiations are directional and line of site, pointing can be avoided to prevent receiver saturation. About 35000 Satellites are in space to provide voice and data service, navigation, GPS, weather, military and various space programs. These satellite footprints are larger to cover wide area and produce interference to radio telescopes. These satellites are geo stationary, geo synchronous, low, and medium orbiting satellites whose locations and orbits have been characterized with the precise servo system of GMRT antennas. The individual satellite signals have been characterized for its frequency, power level and beam width using GMRT antenna and receiver. The antenna control and monitoring system of GMRT observatory is programmed to produce an alarm whenever the antenna beam is nearing a satellite. The software tools provide prediction of these satellite cross over with any scheduled radio astronomy observation, real time location of the antenna beam with adjacent line of site satellites on the sky and tools to post process the old astronomical data for flagging the duration of satellite signal overlap or saturation. The soft tools will be used to apply digital filtering techniques to mitigate these satellite signals in real time or during post processing. The paper presents the detail characterization of satellite interference to GMRT and the software tools developed to co-exist with satellite interference with detail analysis of the loss of signal or data for any given astronomical observation.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130956757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantified interference level limits for QTT key areas","authors":"Qi Liu, Ye Liu, Na Wang, Mao-zheng Chen","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833531","url":null,"abstract":"The Qi Tai telescope (QTT) is a steerable 110 m radio aperture telescope that will be built in Xinjiang province, China. In this paper, we calculate the interference level limits, dB(Wm−2Hz−1) at the feed aperture relevant for the science requirements and the technical parameters of the QTT. These flux densities are converted into field strength units, in dBμV/m, for evaluation of the actual emission levels. Additionally, the side lobe gains of the receiver system will be determined from these key site locations. Based on high-resolution terrain data, a terrain model was constructed for the preliminary layout of the QTT site, in order to analyze the expected propagation losses from key locations to the telescope using the Longley Rice and Two Ray propagation models. Finally, the interference level limits for key activity areas are quantified accurately based on the limits of the feed aperture, the side lobe gains, and the propagation losses.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127029966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V. Prayag, G. K. Beeharry, Nazir Vydelingum, M. Inggs
{"title":"RFI in Mauritius","authors":"V. Prayag, G. K. Beeharry, Nazir Vydelingum, M. Inggs","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833537","url":null,"abstract":"A group of Mauritian scientists are building a Low/Mid Frequency array called the Mauritius Deuterium Telescope (MDT) in Mauritius. Additionally, the country is one of the SKA partner countries and will host one or more nodes of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. To preserve current and future radio astronomical endeavors, it is critical that the radio frequency interference is monitored and regulated. This paper details the steps taken to monitor and identify Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in the region of the Mauritius Radio Telescope site. Current RFI environment is studied. A monitoring observatory is set up to monitor the interference present at the host site. Results are acquired over a one year period. The conclusions show that our band of interest (320–330 MHz) is safe from external interferences but the observatory self generates RFIs which need to be removed. Improvements to the current monitoring set-up are also mentioned.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127899449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spatial filtering experiment with the ASKAP beta array","authors":"G. Hellbourg, K. Bannister, Aidan HotarP","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833528","url":null,"abstract":"A real-time spatial RFI mitigation experiment has been conducted with an ASKAP test array in Australia at GPS L2 frequencies. The goal of the study was to observe and image a bright astronomical source in a corrupted environment. The RFI spatial information was estimated in real-time with Phased Array Feed sample Array Covariance Matrices in order to update a spatial filter based on subspace projection. The resulting images show a clear improvement in the filtered data compared to the unprocessed data. This paper describes the instrument and the RFI mitigation strategy implemented. Possible limitations and improvements of the algorithms employed are suggested after analyzing and interpreting the results.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123847770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spectral kurtosis statistics of quantized signals","authors":"G. Nita, D. Gary, G. Hellbourg","doi":"10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/RFINT.2016.7833535","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the bias of the Spectral Kurtosis Estimator induced by the quantization and bit truncation of the accumulated spectral power, which are standard signal manipulation operations performed by radio astronomy instruments that produce Power Spectral Density (PSD) estimates by means of sequential Discret Fourier Transform (DFT) operations. We demonstrate that these bias may be properly accounted for by adjusting the shape parameter of the Gamma distribution according to which the accumulated PSD estimates are expected to be distributed without quantization. To demonstrate the validity of this approach, we test the performance of an empirically tuned SK estimator using 2-bit auto-correlation data produced by the Parkes telescope.","PeriodicalId":298772,"journal":{"name":"2016 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131167245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}