论文标题

UHF和L波段射频干扰的性质和演变

Nature and Evolution of UHF and L-band Radio Frequency Interference at the MeerKAT Radio Telescope

论文作者

Sihlangu, Isaac, Oozeer, Nadeem, Bassett, Bruce

论文摘要

射频干扰(RFI)是淹没所需的天文信号的不良噪声。射电天文学家一直不得不处理望远镜站点周围的RFI检测和切除,但是几乎没有用统一的方式来理解RFI的完整范围,性质和演变。我们使用针对UHF波段和L波段数据的概率多维框架方法对Meerkat阵列进行此操作。在UHF-Band中,RFI由分配的移动全球系统(GSM)通信,飞行距离测量设备(DME)和UHF-TV频段主导。 L波段患有已知的RFI来源,例如DME,GSM和全球定位系统(GPS)卫星。在“干净”的Meerkat乐队中,我们注意到L-Band和UHF乐队的时间和方向随着RFI的时间而变化。例如,与2018年6月相比,2018年11月,L波段标记的数据的比例显着增加(300%)。这种增加似乎与现场的施工活动相关。在UHF波段中,我们发现清晨受RFI和其他异常值的影响最小。我们还发现,由于19号大流行,在硬锁定期间,DME RFI的DME RFI急剧下降。这里介绍的工作使我们能够在Meerkat网站上表征RFI的演变。任何天文台都可以采用它来了解RFI在周围环境中的行为。

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is unwanted noise that swamps the desired astronomical signal. Radio astronomers have always had to deal with RFI detection and excision around telescope sites, but little has been done to understand the full scope, nature and evolution of RFI in a unified way. We undertake this for the MeerKAT array using a probabilistic multidimensional framework approach focussing on UHF-band and L-band data. In the UHF- band, RFI is dominated by the allocated Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications, flight Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), and UHF-TV bands. The L-band suffers from known RFI sources such as DMEs, GSM, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. In the "clean" MeerKAT band, we noticed the RFI occupancy changing with time and direction for both the L-band and UHF band. For example, we saw a significant increase (300% increase) in the fraction of L-band flagged data in November 2018 compared to June 2018. This increase seems to correlate with construction activity on site. In the UHF-band, we found that the early morning is least impacted by RFI and other outliers. We also found a dramatic decrease in DME RFI during the hard lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The work presented here allows us to characterise the evolution of RFI at the MeerKAT site. Any observatory can adopt it to understand the behaviour of RFI within its surroundings.

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