Mitigating spaceborne radio frequency interference through satellite database
Category
Contribute
Institutions
ETH Zurich
Data type
Satellite signals
Field
Space Geodesy
Researchers
Matthias Schartner
Description
The rapid expansion of satellite mega-constellations like Starlink and OneWeb, which transmit signals at radio frequencies, poses a significant threat to radio astronomy. These satellite signals can cause interference in radio frequency bands and overload the wideband receivers of our highly sensitive radio telescopes, resulting in a loss of crucial information and potentially rendering observations futile. To address this challenge, novel observation strategies have been devised to avoid scheduling observations in proximity to potentially disruptive satellites. However, executing this approach necessitates precise knowledge of the orbits of these potentially harmful satellites.
In this project, we have created a comprehensive database of satellite orbit information by collecting existing data sources. This database further includes information about the emitted frequencies of the satellites. By utilizing this resource, radio astronomers can now query the database to obtain the positions of potentially harmful satellites by submitting the start and end times of their observation session, along with the observed frequencies. We have further developed software to periodically update the satellite orbits to keep it up-to-date. To facilitate seamless interaction with the database, we have crafted a user-friendly web interface and an application programming interface (API) for utilization of the database's capabilities, both manually and automatically.