scholarly journals Protecting Space-Based Radio Astronomy

2001 ◽  
Vol 196 ◽  
pp. 324-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Altunin
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Lagrangian Point ◽  
Radio Telescopes ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Distant Future ◽  
First Results

This paper outlines some of the radio frequency interference issues related to radio astronomy performed with space-based radio telescopes. Radio frequency interference that threatens radio astronomy observations from the surface of Earth will also degrade observations with space-based radio telescopes. However, any resulting interference could be different than for ground-based telescopes due to several factors. Space radio astronomy observations significantly enhance studies in different areas of astronomy. Several space radio astronomy experiments for studies in low-frequency radio astronomy, space VLBI, the cosmic microwave background and the submillimetre wavelengths have flown already. The first results from these missions have provided significant breakthroughs in our understanding of the nature of celestial radio radiation. Radio astronomers plan to deploy more radio telescopes in Earth orbit, in the vicinity of the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, and, in the more distant future, in the shielded zone of the Moon.

Low-frequency technology for a lunar interferometer

2020 ◽  
Vol 379 (2188) ◽  
pp. 20190575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Zarb Adami ◽  
I. O. Farhat
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Signal Detection ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
Lunar Surface ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Radio Interferometer ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Single Antenna ◽  
Global Signal

This work sketches a possible design architecture of a low-frequency radio interferometer located on the lunar surface. The design has evolved from single antenna experiments aimed at the global signal detection of the epoch of reionization (EoR) to the square kilometre array (SKA) which, when complete, will be capable of imaging the highly red-shifted H 1 -signal from the cosmic dawn through to the EoR. However, due to the opacity of the ionosphere below 10 MHz and the anthropogenic radio-frequency interference, these terrestrial facilities are incapable of detecting pre-ionization signals and the moon becomes an attractive location to build a low-frequency radio interferometer capable of detecting such cosmological signals. Even though there are enormous engineering challenges to overcome, having this scientific facility on the lunar surface also opens up several new exciting possibilities for low-frequency radio astronomy. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’.

scholarly journals A survey of spatially and temporally resolved radio frequency interference in the FM band at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Tingay ◽  
M. Sokolowski ◽  
R. Wayth ◽  
D. Ung
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
Angular Resolution ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Earth Orbit ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Astronomy Observatory ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Radio Astronomy Observatory ◽  
Imaging Mode

Abstract We present the first survey of radio frequency interference (RFI) at the future site of the low frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), that both temporally and spatially resolves the RFI. The survey is conducted in a 1 MHz frequency range within the FM band, designed to encompass the closest and strongest FM transmitters to the MRO (located in Geraldton, approximately 300 km distant). Conducted over approximately three days using the second iteration of the Engineering Development Array in an all-sky imaging mode, we find a range of RFI signals. We are able to categorise the signals into: those received directly from the transmitters, from their horizon locations; reflections from aircraft (occupying approximately 13% of the observation duration); reflections from objects in Earth orbit; and reflections from meteor ionisation trails. In total, we analyse 33 994 images at 7.92 s time resolution in both polarisations with angular resolution of approximately 3.5 $^{\circ}$ , detecting approximately forty thousand RFI events. This detailed breakdown of RFI in the MRO environment will enable future detailed analyses of the likely impacts of RFI on key science at low radio frequencies with the SKA.

scholarly journals RFI Sentinel 2

2001 ◽  
Vol 196 ◽  
pp. 301-306
Author(s):  
S. Montebugnoli ◽  
M. Cecchi ◽  
C. Bortolotti ◽  
M. Roma ◽  
S. Mariotti
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Radio Telescopes ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Frequency Bands ◽  
Application Fields ◽  
Sentinel 2

Nowadays we have a massively increasing use of radio techniques in a wide variety of application fields. Meanwhile state-of-the-art receiver technology dramatically increases the sensitivity of modern radio telescopes. This situation produces a worrying vulnerability of ground-based radio telescopes to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). In order to monitor the RFI scenario within the frequency bands reserved for radio astronomy activities, a monitoring system, based on a quite new approach, has been developed and is presented here.

scholarly journals SETI from the Moon: Avoiding Radio Pollution for Future Radio-Astronomy

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 996-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Heidmann
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lunar Farside

AbstractBecause of the ever increasing human-made radio frequency interference (RFI), we propose to IAU a Resolution for protecting the well singled out lunar farside 100 km diameter SAHA crater from any future RFI for the scientific benefit of the coming decades high-sensitivity radioastronomy at large. Immediate and pragmatic action is strongly recommended. Our strategy, different from the ones of a recent ITU Recommendation, could increase our bargaining possibilities.

scholarly journals A New Restoration Method for Radio Frequency Interference Effects on AMSR-2 over North America

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 2917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wangbin Shen ◽  
Zhengkun Qin ◽  
Zhaohui Lin
Keyword(s):  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Interpolation Method ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
New Method ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Data Restoration ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Restoration Method

Observations from spaceborne microwave imagers are important sources of land surface information. However, the low-frequency channels of microwave imagers are easily interfered with by active radio signals with similar frequencies. Radio frequency interference (RFI) signals are widely distributed because of the lack of frequency protection, which seriously hinders the application of microwave imager data in data assimilation and retrieval research. In this paper, a new data restoration method is proposed based on principal component analysis (PCA). Both the ideal and real reconstruction experiments show that the new method can effectively repair abnormal observations interfered by RFI compared with the commonly used Cressman interpolation method because observation information over the whole selected domain is used for restoration in the new method, whereas Cressman interpolation uses only a selection of data around the target observation. The observation errors in the data with RFI can be reduced by one order of magnitude by means of the new method and little artificial information is introduced. One-week restoration validation also proves that the new method has a stable accuracy and broad application prospects.

scholarly journals Stochastic calibration of radio interferometers

2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (4) ◽  
pp. 6071-6078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarod Yatawatta
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Spatial Localization ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Radio Telescopes ◽  
Data Rates ◽  
Data Volume ◽  
Radio Transients ◽  
Processing Steps

ABSTRACT With ever-increasing data rates produced by modern radio telescopes like LOFAR and future telescopes like the SKA, many data-processing steps are overwhelmed by the amount of data that needs to be handled using limited compute resources. Calibration is one such operation that dominates the overall data processing computational cost; none the less, it is an essential operation to reach many science goals. Calibration algorithms do exist that scale well with the number of stations of an array and the number of directions being calibrated. However, the remaining bottleneck is the raw data volume, which scales with the number of baselines, and which is proportional to the square of the number of stations. We propose a ‘stochastic’ calibration strategy where we read only in a mini-batch of data for obtaining calibration solutions, as opposed to reading the full batch of data being calibrated. None the less, we obtain solutions that are valid for the full batch of data. Normally, data need to be averaged before calibration is performed to accommodate the data in size-limited compute memory. Stochastic calibration overcomes the need for data averaging before any calibration can be performed, and offers many advantages, including: enabling the mitigation of faint radio frequency interference; better removal of strong celestial sources from the data; and better detection and spatial localization of fast radio transients.

scholarly journals Deep learning improves identification of Radio Frequency Interference

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Alireza Vafaei Sadr ◽  
Bruce A Bassett ◽  
Nadeem Oozeer ◽  
Yabebal Fantaye ◽  
Chris Finlay
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Radio Frequency ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Radio Frequency Interference ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Amplitude Data ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Telescope Arrays

ABSTRACT Flagging of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in time–frequency visibility data is an increasingly important challenge in radio astronomy. We present R-Net, a deep convolutional ResNet architecture that significantly outperforms existing algorithms – including the default MeerKAT RFI flagger, and deep U-Net architectures – across all metrics including AUC, F1-score, and MCC. We demonstrate the robustness of this improvement on both single dish and interferometric simulations and, using transfer learning, on real data. Our R-Net model’s precision is approximately $90{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ better than the current MeerKAT flagger at $80{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ recall and has a 35 per cent higher F1-score with no additional performance cost. We further highlight the effectiveness of transfer learning from a model initially trained on simulated MeerKAT data and fine-tuned on real, human-flagged, KAT-7 data. Despite the wide differences in the nature of the two telescope arrays, the model achieves an AUC of 0.91, while the best model without transfer learning only reaches an AUC of 0.67. We consider the use of phase information in our models but find that without calibration the phase adds almost no extra information relative to amplitude data only. Our results strongly suggest that deep learning on simulations, boosted by transfer learning on real data, will likely play a key role in the future of RFI flagging of radio astronomy data.

scholarly journals THE FOUNDER OF THE DECAMETER RADIO ASTRONOMY IN UKRAINE ACADEMICIAN OF NAS OF UKRAINE SEMEN YAKOVYCH BRAUDE IS 110 YEARS OLD: HISTORY OF CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL BASE FOR THE LAST HALF CENTURY

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-73
Author(s):  
O. O. Konovalenko ◽  
◽  
V. V. Zakharenko ◽  
L. M. Lytvynenko ◽  
O. M. Ulyanov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radio Astronomy ◽  
Noise Immunity ◽  
Phase Shifter ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Radio Telescopes ◽  
Experimental Base ◽  
Decameter Radio

Purpose: A historical review of the experimental baselopment of low-frequency radio astronomy in Ukraine, its foundation half a century ago by an outstanding scientist S.Ya. Braude to the current state. Design/methodology/approach: The constant progress of electronic, computer and digital technologies, information and telecommunication technologies, theory and practice of antenna and receiving systems design, which introduction enriched the hardware and methodological ideology of construction and usage of the UTR-2, URAN, and GURT radio telescopes, have been used. Findings: The worldwide most effective national experimental radio astronomy means, the UTR-2, URAN, and GURT decameter-meter wave radiotelescopes, have been created and improved. The best combination of the systems main parameters: sensitivity; frequency band; spatial, frequency and temporal resolutions; noise immunity; uniformity of amplitude-frequency and space-frequency characteristics and multifunctionality has been provided. Conclusions: For the half a century of radio astronomical scientific and technical at the Institute of Radio Astronomy of NAS of Ukraine, the high astrophysical informativeness of the low-frequency radio astronomy and the possibility of creating a highly efficient experimental base – giant radio telescopes of decameter-meter wavebands have been proved. Today, the Ukrainian radio telescopes are well known and recognized world-wide being indispensable and most in demand by the scientific community. The founder of the decameter radio astronomy in Ukraine, the eminent scientist Semen Yakovych Braude was not mistaken when he decided to start radio astronomical explorations. The memory of him will always remain in the minds and hearts of many generations. Key words: low-frequency radio astronomy; radio telescope; phase shifter; antenna amplifier; digital signal recorder; effective area; sensitivity; resolution; noise immunity

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document