Radio frequency interference in microwave radiometry: statistical analysis and study of techniques for detection and mitigation

Microwave radiometry field has been increasing its performance with higher accuracy measurements, leading to a more presence in the remote sensing field. Several space-borne, air-borne and ground-based radiometers have been developed to perform measurement campaigns; however, the actual sensitivity of a radiometer is often limited by man-made radio emissions such as radars, broadcasting emissions, wireless communications and many other communication systems based on electromagnetic waves, limiting the improvement in the radiometers¿ performance. Consequently, in order to maintain the accuracy in the radiometric measurements, it has been researched in the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) detection and mitigation systems and algorithms for the microwave radiometry field. The scope of this doctoral thesis is the development and testing of RFI detection and mitigation algorithms in order to enhance radiometric measurements performed by the Multifequency Experimental Radiometer with Interference Tracking for Experiments over Land and Littoral (MERITXELL). The MERITXELL has been developed during this thesis with the idea studying the RFI present in several radiometric bands and the way to mitigate it, as well as to obtain data from diverse frequency bands and devices in only one measurement campaign

MERITXELL: the Multifrequency Experimental Radiometer with Interference Tracking for Experiments over Land and Littoral—instrument description, calibration and performance

MERITXELL is a ground-based multisensor instrument that includes a multiband dual-polarization radiometer, a GNSS reflectometer, and several optical sensors. Its main goals are twofold: to test data fusion techniques, and to develop Radio-Frequency Interference (RFI) detection, localization and mitigation techniques. The former is necessary to retrieve complementary data useful to develop geophysical models with improved accuracy, whereas the latter aims at solving one of the most important problems of microwave radiometry. This paper describes the hardware design, the instrument control architecture, the calibration of the radiometer, and several captures of RFI signals taken with MERITXELL in urban environment. The multiband radiometer has a dual linear polarization total-power radiometer topology, and it covers the L-, S-, C-, X-, K-, Ka-, and W-band. Its back-end stage is based on a spectrum analyzer structure which allows to perform real-time signal processing, while the rest of the sensors are controlled by a host computer where the off-line processing takes place. The calibration of the radiometer is performed using the hot-cold load procedure, together with the tipping curves technique in the case of the five upper frequency bands. Finally, some captures of RFI signals are shown for most of the radiometric bands under analysis, which evidence the problem of RFI in microwave radiometry, and the limitations they impose in external calibration.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The proof of concept for 3-cm Altimetry using the Paris Interferometric Technique

© 2010 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Nogués, O., Ribó, S., Arco, J. C., Cardellach, E., Rius, A., València, E., A. Camps, van der Marel, H., Martín-Neira, M., The proof of concept for 3-cm altimetry using the PARIS interferometric technique, Proceedings of IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IEEE IGARSS), and july/2010. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of CSIC products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.Peer reviewe

RFI mitigation in microwave radiometry using wavelets

The performance of microwave radiometers can be seriously degraded by the presence of radio-frequency interference (RFI). Spurious signals and harmonics from lower frequency bands, spread-spectrum signals overlapping the “protected” band of operation, or out-of-band emissions not properly rejected by the pre-detection filters due to the finite rejection modify the detected power and the estimated antenna temperature from which the geophysical parameters will be retrieved. In recent years, techniques to detect the presence of RFI have been developed. They include time- and/or frequency domain analyses, or statistical analysis of the received signal which, in the absence of RFI, must be a zero-mean Gaussian process. Current mitigation techniques are mostly based on blanking in the time and/or frequency domains where RFI has been detected. However, in some geographical areas, RFI is so persistent in time that is not possible to acquire RFI-free radiometric data. In other applications such as sea surface salinity retrieval, where the sensitivity of the brightness temperature to salinity is weak, small amounts of RFI are also very difficult to detect and mitigate. In this work a wavelet-based technique is proposed to mitigate RFI (cancel RFI as much as possible). The interfering signal is estimated by using the powerful denoising capabilities of the wavelet transform. The estimated RFI signal is then subtracted from the received signal and a “cleaned” noise signal is obtained, from which the power is estimated later. The algorithm performance as a function of the threshold type, and the threshold selection method, the decomposition level, the wavelet type and the interferenceto-noise ratio is presented. Computational requirements are evaluated in terms of quantization levels, number of operations, memory requirements (sequence length). Even though they are high for today’s technology, the algorithms presented can be applied to recorded data. The results show that even RFI much larger than the noise signal can be very effectively mitigated, well below the noise level

Radio-frequency interference detection and mitigation algorithms for synthetic aperture radiometers

28 pages, 26 figures, 1 tableThe European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission in November 2, 2009. SMOS uses a new type of instrument, a synthetic aperture radiometer named MIRAS that provides full-polarimetric multi-angular L-band brightness temperatures, from which regular and global maps of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) and Soil Moisture (SM) are generated. Although SMOS operates in a restricted band (1400 1427 MHz), radio-frequency interference (RFI) appears in SMOS imagery in many areas of the world, and it is an important issue to be addressed for quality SSS and SM retrievals. The impact on SMOS imagery of a sinusoidal RFI source is reviewed, and the problem is illustrated with actual RFI encountered by SMOS. Two RFI detection and mitigation algorithms are developed (dual-polarization and full-polarimetric modes), the performance of the second one has been quantitatively evaluated in terms of probability of detection and false alarm (using a synthetic test scene), and results presented using real dual-polarization and full-polarimetric SMOS imagery. Finally, a statistical analysis of more than 13,000 L1b snap-shots is presented and discussedThis work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant AYA2008-05906-C02-01/ESP and ESA project “SMOS L1 Processor Prototype Phase 5 and Commissioning Studies”Peer Reviewe

Preliminary performance study of different radio-frequency interference detection and mitigation algorithms in microwave radiometry

This work presents the preliminary performance study of several RFI detection and mitigation algorithms applied to real data. The used algorithms include statistical analysis in the time and frequency domains and time and frequency domains analysis. The data has been acquired in an urban area using a new experimental radiometer called MERITXELL.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

RFI Analysis in SMOS Imagery

2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 25-30 July 2010, Honolulu, HI.-- 4 pages, 9 figuresSMOS imagery has been analyzed to study: 1) radio-frequency interference (RFI) detection and mitigation algorithms, and 2) the statistical properties of RFI. Results show that with a high probability of detection (~0.75), the probability of false alarm is very high as well (~0.68), and most snap-shots seem to be contaminated, even though the estimated RFI value is so weak, and the impact in the SMOS imagery is not even noticeable. Results of the detection and mitigation algorithm are presented, with the statistical analysis of more than 13000 L1b snap-shotsThis work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant AYA2008-0506-C02-01/ESP and ESA project >SMOS L1 Processor Prototype Phase 5 and Commissioning Studies>Peer Reviewe

On-line measurements on krypton and xenon isotopes

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D72172/87 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Study of radio frequency interference effects on radiometry bands in urban environments

Microwave radiometers are very accurate passive sensors that have been successfully used in Earth remote sensing during the last decades. Microwave radiometers measure thermal noise, therefore any other signal (radio-frequency interference or RFI) present in the band modifies the value of the measured power, and the corresponding estimated antenna temperature, from which the geophysical parameters will be retrieved. An on-going RFI survey shows how corrupted is the spectrum “protected” L-band in the city of Barcelona. This type of studies should help to validate or discard the measurements made there, and in other locations, and also to take further actions against RFI. Detection and mitigation techniques are used to validate results.Peer Reviewe