RFI Mitigation in Radio Astronomy

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of methods for mitigating radio frequency interference (RFI) in radio astronomy data. The primary purpose of mitigation is to assist observatories to take useful data outside frequency bands allocated to the Radio Astronomy Service (RAS): mitigation should not be needed within RAS bands. Mitigation methods may be introduced at a variety of points within the data acquisition system. These range from proactive methods to change the local RFI environment by means of regulatory manners, to pre- And post-detection methods, to various precorrelation methods, and to methods applied at correlation and post-correlation. Every method of RFI mitigation results in data loss. A forward look is presented on the implementation of methods to cope with changing interference environments at observatories.