Radio frequency interference in solar monitoring using CALLISTO

Compact Astronomical Low-frequency, Low-cost Instrument for Spectroscopy in Transportable Observatories (CALLISTO) is a global network of spectrometer system with the purpose to observe the Sun's activities. There are 37 stations (using 68 instruments) forming this network from more than 96 countries. We investigate the radio frequency interference (RFI) affecting CALLISTO at these stations. We found that the RFI severely affecting CALLISTO within radio astronomical windows below 870 MHz are in the ranges of 80–110 MHz and 460–500 MHz. We also found that all stations are relatively free from RFI at 270–290 MHz. We investigate the general effect of RFI on detection of solar bursts. We considered type III solar bursts on 10th May, 28th June, 6th July and 8th July, type II on 24th April and type IV on 9th March (all in 2012) in order to measure the percentage of RFI level during solar burst in general. The SNR of the strong solar bursts in for these detections have maxima reaching up to 46.20 (for 6th July).