34,912 research outputs found
A review of RFI mitigation techniques in microwave radiometry
Radio frequency interference (RFI) is a well-known problem in microwave radiometry (MWR). Any undesired signal overlapping the MWR protected frequency bands introduces a bias in the measurements, which can corrupt the retrieved geophysical parameters. This paper presents a literature review of RFI detection and mitigation techniques for microwave radiometry from space. The reviewed techniques are divided between real aperture and aperture synthesis. A discussion and assessment of the application of RFI mitigation techniques is presented for each type of radiometer.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Galaxy alignments: Observations and impact on cosmology
Galaxy shapes are not randomly oriented, rather they are statistically
aligned in a way that can depend on formation environment, history and galaxy
type. Studying the alignment of galaxies can therefore deliver important
information about the physics of galaxy formation and evolution as well as the
growth of structure in the Universe. In this review paper we summarise key
measurements of galaxy alignments, divided by galaxy type, scale and
environment. We also cover the statistics and formalism necessary to understand
the observations in the literature. With the emergence of weak gravitational
lensing as a precision probe of cosmology, galaxy alignments have taken on an
added importance because they can mimic cosmic shear, the effect of
gravitational lensing by large-scale structure on observed galaxy shapes. This
makes galaxy alignments, commonly referred to as intrinsic alignments, an
important systematic effect in weak lensing studies. We quantify the impact of
intrinsic alignments on cosmic shear surveys and finish by reviewing practical
mitigation techniques which attempt to remove contamination by intrinsic
alignments.Comment: 52 pages excl. references, 16 figures; minor changes to match version
published in Space Science Reviews; part of a topical volume on galaxy
alignments, with companion papers arXiv:1504.05456 and arXiv:1504.0554
Weak gravitational lensing with the Square Kilometre Array
We investigate the capabilities of various stages of the SKA to perform
world-leading weak gravitational lensing surveys. We outline a way forward to
develop the tools needed for pursuing weak lensing in the radio band. We
identify the key analysis challenges and the key pathfinder experiments that
will allow us to address them in the run up to the SKA. We identify and
summarize the unique and potentially very powerful aspects of radio weak
lensing surveys, facilitated by the SKA, that can solve major challenges in the
field of weak lensing. These include the use of polarization and rotational
velocity information to control intrinsic alignments, and the new area of weak
lensing using intensity mapping experiments. We show how the SKA lensing
surveys will both complement and enhance corresponding efforts in the optical
wavebands through cross-correlation techniques and by way of extending the
reach of weak lensing to high redshift.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. Cosmology Chapter, Advancing Astrophysics with
the SKA (AASKA14) Conference, Giardini Naxos (Italy), June 9th-13th 201
Recommended from our members
Development and Demonstration of a TDOA-Based GNSS Interference Signal Localization System
Background theory, a reference design, and demonstration
results are given for a Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) interference localization system comprising a
distributed radio-frequency sensor network that simultaneously
locates multiple interference sources by measuring their signals’
time difference of arrival (TDOA) between pairs of nodes in
the network. The end-to-end solution offered here draws from
previous work in single-emitter group delay estimation, very long
baseline interferometry, subspace-based estimation, radar, and
passive geolocation. Synchronization and automatic localization
of sensor nodes is achieved through a tightly-coupled receiver
architecture that enables phase-coherent and synchronous sampling
of the interference signals and so-called reference signals
which carry timing and positioning information. Signal and crosscorrelation
models are developed and implemented in a simulator.
Multiple-emitter subspace-based TDOA estimation techniques
are developed as well as emitter identification and localization
algorithms. Simulator performance is compared to the CramérRao
lower bound for single-emitter TDOA precision. Results are
given for a test exercise in which the system accurately locates
emitters broadcasting in the amateur radio band in Austin, TX.Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanic
Robust Detection of Moving Human Target in Foliage-Penetration Environment Based on Hough Transform
Attention has been focused on the robust moving human target detection in foliage-penetration environment, which presents a formidable task in a radar system because foliage is a rich scattering environment with complex multipath propagation and time-varying clutter. Generally, multiple-bounce returns and clutter are additionally superposed to direct-scatter echoes. They obscure true target echo and lead to poor visual quality time-range image, making target detection particular difficult. Consequently, an innovative approach is proposed to suppress clutter and mitigate multipath effects. In particular, a clutter suppression technique based on range alignment is firstly applied to suppress the time-varying clutter and the instable antenna coupling. Then entropy weighted coherent integration (EWCI) algorithm is adopted to mitigate the multipath effects. In consequence, the proposed method effectively reduces the clutter and ghosting artifacts considerably. Based on the high visual quality image, the target trajectory is detected robustly and the radial velocity is estimated accurately with the Hough transform (HT). Real data used in the experimental results are provided to verify the proposed method
Passive detection of moving aerial target based on multiple collaborative GPS satellites
Passive localization is an important part of intelligent surveillance in security and emergency applications. Nowadays, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) have been widely deployed. As a result, the satellite signal receiver may receive multiple GPS signals simultaneously, incurring echo signal detection failure. Therefore, in this paper, a passive method leveraging signals from multiple GPS satellites is proposed for moving aerial target detection. In passive detection, the first challenge is the interference caused by multiple GPS signals transmitted upon the same spectrum resources. To address this issue, successive interference cancellation (SIC) is utilized to separate and reconstruct multiple GPS signals on the reference channel. Moreover, on the monitoring channel, direct wave and multi-path interference are eliminated by extensive cancellation algorithm (ECA). After interference from multiple GPS signals is suppressed, the cycle cross ambiguity function (CCAF) of the signal on the monitoring channel is calculated and coordinate transformation method is adopted to map multiple groups of different time delay-Doppler spectrum into the distance−velocity spectrum. The detection statistics are calculated by the superposition of multiple groups of distance-velocity spectrum. Finally, the echo signal is detected based on a properly defined adaptive detection threshold. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. They show that the detection probability of our proposed method can reach 99%, when the echo signal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is only −64 dB. Moreover, our proposed method can achieve 5 dB improvement over the detection method using a single GPS satellite
SKA Weak Lensing II: Simulated Performance and Survey Design Considerations
We construct a pipeline for simulating weak lensing cosmology surveys with
the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), taking as inputs telescope sensitivity
curves; correlated source flux, size and redshift distributions; a simple
ionospheric model; source redshift and ellipticity measurement errors. We then
use this simulation pipeline to optimise a 2-year weak lensing survey performed
with the first deployment of the SKA (SKA1). Our assessments are based on the
total signal-to-noise of the recovered shear power spectra, a metric that we
find to correlate very well with a standard dark energy figure of merit. We
first consider the choice of frequency band, trading off increases in number
counts at lower frequencies against poorer resolution; our analysis strongly
prefers the higher frequency Band 2 (950-1760 MHz) channel of the SKA-MID
telescope to the lower frequency Band 1 (350-1050 MHz). Best results would be
obtained by allowing the centre of Band 2 to shift towards lower frequency,
around 1.1 GHz. We then move on to consider survey size, finding that an area
of 5,000 square degrees is optimal for most SKA1 instrumental configurations.
Finally, we forecast the performance of a weak lensing survey with the second
deployment of the SKA. The increased survey size (3\,steradian) and
sensitivity improves both the signal-to-noise and the dark energy metrics by
two orders of magnitude.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Comments welcome. Updated to match
published versio
Radio-Optical Galaxy Shape Correlations in the COSMOS Field
We investigate the correlations in galaxy shapes between optical and radio
wavelengths using archival observations of the COSMOS field. Cross-correlation
studies between different wavebands will become increasingly important for
precision cosmology as future large surveys may be dominated by systematic
rather than statistical errors. In the case of weak lensing, galaxy shapes must
be measured to extraordinary accuracy (shear systematics of ) in
order to achieve good constraints on dark energy parameters. By using shape
information from overlapping surveys in optical and radio bands, robustness to
systematics may be significantly improved without loss of constraining power.
Here we use HST-ACS optical data, VLA radio data, and extensive simulations to
investigate both our ability to make precision measurements of source shapes
from realistic radio data, and to constrain the intrinsic astrophysical scatter
between the shapes of galaxies as measured in the optical and radio wavebands.
By producing a new image from the VLA-COSMOS L-band radio visibility data that
is well suited to galaxy shape measurements, we are able to extract precise
measurements of galaxy position angles. Comparing to corresponding measurements
from the HST optical image, we set a lower limit on the intrinsic astrophysical
scatter in position angles, between the optical and radio bands, of
radians (or ) at a confidence
level.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure, 5 tables. Updated to match published version
with a number of typographical correction
Post-correlation radio frequency interference classification methods
We describe and compare several post-correlation radio frequency interference
classification methods. As data sizes of observations grow with new and
improved telescopes, the need for completely automated, robust methods for
radio frequency interference mitigation is pressing. We investigated several
classification methods and find that, for the data sets we used, the most
accurate among them is the SumThreshold method. This is a new method formed
from a combination of existing techniques, including a new way of thresholding.
This iterative method estimates the astronomical signal by carrying out a
surface fit in the time-frequency plane. With a theoretical accuracy of 95%
recognition and an approximately 0.1% false probability rate in simple
simulated cases, the method is in practice as good as the human eye in finding
RFI. In addition it is fast, robust, does not need a data model before it can
be executed and works in almost all configurations with its default parameters.
The method has been compared using simulated data with several other mitigation
techniques, including one based upon the singular value decomposition of the
time-frequency matrix, and has shown better results than the rest.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures (11 in colour). The software that was used in
the article can be downloaded from http://www.astro.rug.nl/rfi-software
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