The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation
The Murchison Widefield Array is a new low-frequency interferometric radio telescope built in Western Australia at one of the locations of the future Square Kilometre Array. We describe the automated radio-frequency interference detection strategy implemented for the Murchison Widefield Array, which...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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CSIRO Publishing
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98050 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-7240 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0086-7363 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3336-9958 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0422-2324 |
| _version_ | 1826212084699889664 |
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| author | Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Dillon, Joshua Shane Ewall-Wice, Aaron Michael Feng, Lu Neben, Abraham Richard Tegmark, Max Erik Williams, Christopher Leigh Cappallo, Roger J Hewitt, Jacqueline N Morgan, Edward H |
| author2 | Haystack Observatory |
| author_facet | Haystack Observatory Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Dillon, Joshua Shane Ewall-Wice, Aaron Michael Feng, Lu Neben, Abraham Richard Tegmark, Max Erik Williams, Christopher Leigh Cappallo, Roger J Hewitt, Jacqueline N Morgan, Edward H |
| author_sort | Lonsdale, Colin John |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The Murchison Widefield Array is a new low-frequency interferometric radio telescope built in Western Australia at one of the locations of the future Square Kilometre Array. We describe the automated radio-frequency interference detection strategy implemented for the Murchison Widefield Array, which is based on the aoflagger platform, and present 72–231 MHz radio-frequency interference statistics from 10 observing nights. Radio-frequency interference detection removes 1.1% of the data. Radio-frequency interference from digital TV is observed 3% of the time due to occasional ionospheric or atmospheric propagation. After radio-frequency interference detection and excision, almost all data can be calibrated and imaged without further radio-frequency interference mitigation efforts, including observations within the FM and digital TV bands. The results are compared to a previously published Low-Frequency Array radio-frequency interference survey. The remote location of the Murchison Widefield Array results in a substantially cleaner radio-frequency interference environment compared to Low-Frequency Array’s radio environment, but adequate detection of radio-frequency interference is still required before data can be analysed. We include specific recommendations designed to make the Square Kilometre Array more robust to radio-frequency interference, including: the availability of sufficient computing power for radio-frequency interference detection; accounting for radio-frequency interference in the receiver design; a smooth band-pass response; and the capability of radio-frequency interference detection at high time and frequency resolution (second and kHz-scale respectively). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:16:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/98050 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:16:09Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | CSIRO Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/980502022-10-02T01:47:19Z The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Dillon, Joshua Shane Ewall-Wice, Aaron Michael Feng, Lu Neben, Abraham Richard Tegmark, Max Erik Williams, Christopher Leigh Cappallo, Roger J Hewitt, Jacqueline N Morgan, Edward H Haystack Observatory MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Cappallo, Roger J. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Dillon, Joshua Shane Ewall-Wice, Aaron Michael Feng, Lu Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Morgan, Edward H. Neben, Abraham Richard Tegmark, Max Erik Williams, Christopher Leigh The Murchison Widefield Array is a new low-frequency interferometric radio telescope built in Western Australia at one of the locations of the future Square Kilometre Array. We describe the automated radio-frequency interference detection strategy implemented for the Murchison Widefield Array, which is based on the aoflagger platform, and present 72–231 MHz radio-frequency interference statistics from 10 observing nights. Radio-frequency interference detection removes 1.1% of the data. Radio-frequency interference from digital TV is observed 3% of the time due to occasional ionospheric or atmospheric propagation. After radio-frequency interference detection and excision, almost all data can be calibrated and imaged without further radio-frequency interference mitigation efforts, including observations within the FM and digital TV bands. The results are compared to a previously published Low-Frequency Array radio-frequency interference survey. The remote location of the Murchison Widefield Array results in a substantially cleaner radio-frequency interference environment compared to Low-Frequency Array’s radio environment, but adequate detection of radio-frequency interference is still required before data can be analysed. We include specific recommendations designed to make the Square Kilometre Array more robust to radio-frequency interference, including: the availability of sufficient computing power for radio-frequency interference detection; accounting for radio-frequency interference in the receiver design; a smooth band-pass response; and the capability of radio-frequency interference detection at high time and frequency resolution (second and kHz-scale respectively). 2015-08-07T13:12:21Z 2015-08-07T13:12:21Z 2015-03 2014-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1323-3580 1448-6083 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98050 Offringa, A. R., R. B. Wayth, N. Hurley-Walker, D. L. Kaplan, N. Barry, A. P. Beardsley, M. E. Bell, et al. “The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 32 (2015). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-7240 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0086-7363 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3336-9958 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0422-2324 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2015.7 Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf CSIRO Publishing arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Dillon, Joshua Shane Ewall-Wice, Aaron Michael Feng, Lu Neben, Abraham Richard Tegmark, Max Erik Williams, Christopher Leigh Cappallo, Roger J Hewitt, Jacqueline N Morgan, Edward H The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title_full | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title_fullStr | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title_short | The Low-Frequency Environment of the Murchison Widefield Array: Radio-Frequency Interference Analysis and Mitigation |
| title_sort | low frequency environment of the murchison widefield array radio frequency interference analysis and mitigation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98050 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-7240 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0086-7363 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3336-9958 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0422-2324 |
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