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Radio Frequency Interference and How to Deal With It

Radio Frequency Interference and How to Deal With It. Toney Minter NRAO. What can RFI do to your observations?. Cover your spectral line. 2. What can RFI do to your observations?. Cover your spectral line Create baseline issues. 3. What can RFI do to your observations?.

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Radio Frequency Interference and How to Deal With It

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  1. Radio Frequency Interference and How to Deal With It Toney Minter NRAO

  2. What can RFI do to your observations? • Cover your spectral line 2

  3. What can RFI do to your observations? • Cover your spectral line • Create baseline issues 3

  4. What can RFI do to your observations? • Cover your spectral line • Create baseline issues • Create non-linear responses 4

  5. What can you do? Ignore the RFI Flag data after observations Get worse results than desired Waste lots of telescope time Modify your observations Try to avoid known RFI Observe when RFI is off (night-time, etc.)‏ Eliminate the RFI transmitter Not always possible Only have rights in protected bands Quiet Zone Cooperation of transmitter Cancel RFI signal Need reference antenna Subtract reference antenna signal from data

  6. Planning Your Observations There is no magic bullet for dealing with RFI Understand the RFI What frequencies How strong How often Constant Periodic Random Signal direction Look at Spectrum Surveys Arecibo http://www.naic.edu/~rfiuser/smarg-hplots.html Green Bank http://www.gb.nrao.edu/IPG/

  7. Planning Your Observations Coordinate the observations if possible Is RFI less prevalent at night? Are emitters willing to participate? IF system Set filters and frequencies in IF system to remove RFI Use narrow filters Offset spectral line from bandpass center Watch your power levels Strong RFI can saturate parts of the IF Backends Higher level sampling Shorter integration times

  8. Ringing from Strong RFI

  9. Removing RFI from Data Automated removal of RFI very difficult Pulsars Very short integration time in each sample Majority of samples do not have “signal” “Signal” < noise level in sample Determine noise level Clip signal well above noise Spectral line Longer integration times Fewer samples Lower noise levels – easier to see RFI How do you tell difference between RFI and line?

  10. Flagging Spectral Line Data “Types” of RFI Narrow lines that vary in time Narrow lines that are persistent

  11. Narrow, Time Varying RFI

  12. Flagging Spectral Line Data “Types” of RFI Narrow lines that vary in time Narrow lines that are “constant” in time Strong occasional or periodic RFI

  13. Strong RFI

  14. Flagging Spectral Line Data “Types” of RFI Narrow lines that vary in time Narrow lines that are “constant” in time Strong occasional or periodic RFI Occasional strong out of band RFI

  15. Out of Band RFI

  16. Conclusions No Magical solutions Do your homework before you observe Do your best to avoid RFI during your observations Understand your data Where is the RFI When is the RFI Flag your data accordingly

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