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How Does One Identify Radio Frequency Interference in Astronomical Measurements?

-- | April 9, 2017

Question: Hello. This question falls under radio astronomy. I’m currently working on a project involving python programming. The goal is to create an algorithm to identify Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) in the RF data. I’m yet to be given the data. My question is how do you identify RFI from the data? I hope my question is clear. — Krispin

Answer: The post-measurement and elimination of radio frequency interference (RFI) in radio astronomy measurements is a rather difficult problem to solve. This problem has been addressed using a variety of software implementations. A good general description of the problem and one particular solution, using threshold blanking of RFI, can be found in the masters thesis of Jukka-Pekka Porko. The description of the technique given in this masters thesis and the references to other RFI mitigation techniques should provide a nice overview of the problem from which you can develop your python-based solution.

Jeff Mangum

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