Abstract
The soil moisture active/passive (SMAP) satellite microwave radiometer has been providing global measurements of L-band thermal emission from Earth since April 2015. Although the radiometer operates in the protected 1400-1427 MHz portion of the radio spectrum, its measurements are still corrupted by either radio frequency interference (RFI) from out-of-band emissions via legal sources or by sources operating in-band illegally. The SMAP radiometer includes a digital backend that enables implementation of multiple ground-based RFI detection and filtering algorithms. This data is used to collect statistics and trends of Earth's RFI environment. This article examines properties of the global RFI environment as observed by SMAP, including information on RFI source properties (obtained from analysis of SMAP multiple detector outputs) and the evolution of the RFI environment in time. Residual RFI contributions after the application of SMAP RFI processing are also examined as preliminary information for the development of future methods to address their effect.
Highlights
Measurements of Earth’s natural thermal emissions in the protected 1400-1427 MHz portion of the radio spectrum can be used to monitor soil moisture, ocean salinity, and other Earth surface properties, as demonstrated by the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) [1], Aquarius [2], and Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) [3] missions
This paper reports an analysis of the radio frequency interference (RFI) environment as observed by SMAP, properties of the RFI sources observed that can be inferred from SMAP multiple detectors, as well as information on changes in the RFI environment over time
The multi-year dataset available from SMAP RFI algorithms provide extensive information on the RFI environment at Lband
Summary
Measurements of Earth’s natural thermal emissions in the protected 1400-1427 MHz portion of the radio spectrum can be used to monitor soil moisture, ocean salinity, and other Earth surface properties, as demonstrated by the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) [1], Aquarius [2], and Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) [3] missions. SMAP microwave radiometer includes a digital backend that enables ground-based RFI detection and filtering. This paper reports an analysis of the RFI environment as observed by SMAP, properties of the RFI sources observed that can be inferred from SMAP multiple detectors, as well as information on changes in the RFI environment over time. The section reviews SMAP RFI detection algorithms and their capabilities in detecting differing RFI source types. > REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK 2 HERE TO EDIT)
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