RFI Mitigation in Radio Science

Overview: This is a repository for materials pertaining to Virginia Tech's efforts on mitigation of radio frequency interference (RFI) in radio science applications, including (but not necessarily limited to) radio astronomy and earth remote sensing.

Maintainer: S.W. Ellingson
This page is http://www.ece.vt.edu/~swe/ska1/
Last updated: April 30, 2005 UT 0014

Documents are listed in reverse chronological order by date of submission (not publication) or first available version. Related works are listed under what is judged (by me) to be the most authoritative/complete document.

Table of Contents:

Journal Papers.
Conference Papers & Presentations.
Technical Reports.
Seminars.
Links to Meetings and Working Groups Addressing RFI Mitigation.
About the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).

Workshop on Mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference in Radio Astronomy (RFI2004), Penticton, BC, Canada, July 16-18, 2004. Co-Chairs: S.W. Ellingson and F.H. Briggs. Click logo for proceedings.

Journal Papers

S.W. Ellingson and J.T. Johnson, "A Polarimetric Survey of Radio Frequency Interference in C- and X-Bands in the Continental United States using WindSAT Radiometry" (PDF), IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Submitted Jan 13, 2005.
S.W. Ellingson, "RFI Mitigation and the SKA," Experimental Astronomy, in press.
N. Niamsuwan, J.T. Johnson, S.W. Ellingson, "Examination of a Simple Pulse Blanking Technique for RFI Mitigation" (PDF), Radio Science, August 2004, in press. Also presentation slides are available from the presentation of this work at the Workshop on Mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference in Radio Astronomy (RFI2004), Penticton, BC, 2004.
S.W. Ellingson and G.A. Hampson, "Mitigation of Radar Interference in L-Band Radio Astronomy", Astrophysical J. Supp. Ser., 147(1):167-176 (July 2003). (Submitted Dec 26, 2002; Accepted Feb 28, 2003)
S.W. Ellingson, "Beamforming and Interference Canceling with Very Large Wideband Arrays", IEEE Trans. Ant. & Prop., 51(6):1338-47 (June 2003).
S.W. Ellingson and W. Cazemier, "Efficient Multibeam Synthesis with Interference Nulling for Large Arrays", IEEE Trans. Ant. & Prop., 51(3):503-11 (March 2003). Related presentations:
- S.W. Ellingson, "Efficient Multibeam Synthesis with Interference Nulling for Large Arrays", URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, CO, January 2002. (Presentation based on paper.)
- S.W. Ellingson, "Joint Multibeaming and RFI Suppression for SKA-Class Systems", US SKA Consortium Meeting at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, February 2000. (Presentation discussing some aspects of the work presented in the paper.)
S.W. Ellingson, J. Bunton, and J.F. Bell, "Removal of the GLONASS C/A Signal from OH Spectral Line Observations Using a Parametric Modelling Technique", Astrophysical J. Supp. Ser., 135(1):87-93 (July 2001).
S.W. Ellingson and G.A. Hampson, "A Subspace-Tracking Approach to Interference Nulling for Phased Array-Based Radio Telescopes", IEEE Trans. Ant. & Prop., Vol. 50, No. 1, Jan 2002, pp. 25-30. (Submitted Nov 1999)

Conference Papers & Presentations

Conference materials superceded by journal papers are listed in the "Journal Papers" section, above.

S.W. Ellingson and J.T. Johnson, A Study of RFI in the WindSat C- and X-Band Channels (PDF), WindSat Cal/Val and Science Meeting, Solomons, MD, November 18, 2004.
S. Ellingson and P. McDougle, "Iridium: Characterization and Countermeasures", Workshop on Mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference in Radio Astronomy (RFI2004), Penticton, BC, 2004.
S.W. Ellingson and G.A. Hampson, "Detection and Localization of L-Band Satellites Using an Antenna Array", 2004 IEEE Int'l Ant. & Prop. Sym., Monterey, CA, June 2004 (1:177-180). Here are the presentation slides.
G.A. Hampson, S.W. Ellingson, and J.T. Johnson, "Design and Demonstration of an Interference Suppressing Microwave Radiometer" (PDF), 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conf., Big Sky, MT, March 2004. Also, here are the presentation slides (PDF).
S. Ellingson, "Report of the WGRM" (PPT), 2003 Int'l SKA Meeting, Geraldton, Australia, July 2003.
S.W. Ellingson, "Detection of Tones and Pulses using a Large, Uncalibrated Array", 2003 IEEE Int'l Ant. & Prop. Sym., Columbus, OH, June 2003 (4:196-9).
- S.W. Ellingson, "Detection and Localization of Tones and Pulses using an Uncalibrated Array" (PDF), Memo, Jan 24, 2002. (contains some information on RFI mitigation not included above)
S.W. Ellingson, "Capabilities and Limitations of Adaptive Canceling for Microwave Radiometry", IEEE 2002 Intn'l Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2002), Toronto, June 2002. For the paper (includes corrections to typos appearing in conference version), click here (PDF). For the presentation slides, click here (PDF).

S.W. Ellingson, (Multiple Talks), E&F White Conference on RFI Mitigation Strategies at CSIRO/ATNF, Sydney, Australia, December 1999. Presentations made:

Technical Reports

R. Ambrosini, R. Beresford, A.-J. Boonstra, S. Ellingson (ed.), and K. Tapping, "RFI Measurement Protocol for Candidate SKA Sites", SKA Memo 37, May 23, 2004.
S.W. Ellingson and G.A. Hampson, "RFI and Asynchronous Pulse Blanking in the 1230-1375 MHz Band at Arecibo", The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory Technical Report 743467-3, Feb 2003. This electronic copy is dated November 12, 2002; this is becase there was a delay in logging it as an ESL techical report.
S. Ellingson, "Characterization of the 1350 MHz Radar Received at Arecibo" (PDF), Nov 24, 2002; revised Nov 25, 2002 (analyzed more pulses).
S.W. Ellingson, "A Survey of RFI below 270 MHz" (PDF), October 29, 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "A High-Resolution Survey of RFI at 1200-1470 MHz as Seen by Argus" (PDF), October 29, 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "A Survey of 1200-1800 MHz Using a Discone and a Spiral with the Argus Front End" (PDF), October 12, 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "Deterministic Space-Frequency Nulling for Large Wideband Arrays", Oct 2, 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "Characterization of Some L-Band Signals Visible at Arecibo", The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory Technical Report 743467-2, September 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "A Study of Adaptive Canceling for Microwave Radiometry and Spectrometry" (PDF), The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory Technical Report 743467-1, Sep 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "Analysis and Mitigation of Radar at the RPA" (PDF), informal report, Sep 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "Analysis of the April 2001 GPS Observations from the RPA" (PDF; PS available here), informal report, Oct 2001; revised Sep 2002.
G.A. Hampson and S.W. Ellingson, "Demonstration of the ESL-IIP Radiometer's Asynchronous Pulse Blanker: Mitigation of an Air Traffic Control Radar" (PDF), July 26, 2002. Postscript version available here.
S.W. Ellingson and G.A. Hampson, "On Air Test of the IIP Receiver Using Observations of an ATC Radar" (PDF), June 29, 2002.
S.W. Ellingson, "Radio Source Localization Using a Small Array", The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory Technical Report 531393-3, March 2000. Related presentation:
- S.W. Ellingson, "RFI Detection Using an Array" (Select format and then search for author or title), International SKA Meeting, Berkeley, CA, July 2001.

Seminars

S.W. Ellingson, "Wide Field Searches for Radio Transients", U. of Minnesota Astrophysics Colloquium, Apr 30, 2004. The last few slides address the problem of distinguishing between radar pulses and astronomical transients
S.W. Ellingson, "Interference Mitigation in Radio Astronomy and Remote Sensing", Virginia Tech ECE Dept. Graduate Seminar, Feb 2004. Intended audience was first-year graduate students in Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Links to Meetings and Working Groups Addressing RFI Mitigation

Workshop on Mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference in Radio Astronomy (RFI2004), Penticton, BC, July 2004.
Working Group on RFI Measurements (WGRM), Formed in February 2003 to develop standardized measurements for evaluation of RFI at SKA candidate sites.
OSU's Digital Receiver with Interference Mitigation for Microwave Radiometry, a NASA IIP project. (web page/document server).
"E&F White Conference on RFI Mitigation Strategies" at CSIRO/ATNF, Sydney, Australia, December 1999.

About the Square Kilometer Array

Much of the work reported here results from the multi-institution Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) project, "Technology Development for the Square Kilometer Array," funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is a new radio telescope, currently in the planning stages, which aims to achieve sensitivity two orders of magnitude better than any existing instrument, and which can only be achieved by a similarly dramatic increase in collecting area (hence, the name). Virginia Tech's contributions are currently focused on the characterization and mitigation of RFI. For additional information on the SKA, see:

International SKA Consortium
US SKA Consortium
"Technology Development for the Square Kilometer Array" (HTML), NSF Award Abstract.
"Massive telescope project, Square Kilometer Array, gets federal research contract to pursue U.S. design" (HTML), Cornell University Press Release, Nov 12, 2002.