快速射电暴观测数据干扰缓解方法研究

从海量的天文观测数据中快速搜寻罕见的快速射电暴(Fast Radio Burst, FRB)事件, 干扰缓解是其中一项关键而具有挑战的工作. 射频干扰(Radio Frequency Interference, RFI)会淹没真实的天文事件, 还会导致搜寻管线输出大量的假阳性候选体. 由于干扰来源及其种类的复杂性, 目前并没有一种通用的方法可以解决这个问题. 为了降低干扰对FRB观测搜寻的影响, 分析和研究了南山26m射电望远镜L波段观测数据中的干扰情况, 针对主要的窄带干扰和宽带干扰建立了3层次的干扰缓解处理流程, 从而有效缓解了观测数据的干扰污染情况. 将该流程嵌入到FRB色散动态谱搜寻(Dispersed Dynamic Spectra Search, DDSS)管线中, 实验结果表明, 搜寻管线的检测率和检测精度得到了进一步的提高. 该方法为FRB观测数据干扰缓解处理提供了有价值的参考.     

L-band RFI Measurement and Mitigation at the NSRT Site

近些年，南山台址内部各类电子设备不断引入，此过程忽视了有效的设备管理及电磁防护，且台址周边无线电业务增多，以致电波环境恶化。为改善台址电波环境，采用一种准实时电波环境测量方法测量分析了台址周边瞬态信号的影响；另外，为提高微弱信号检测能力，采用便携式电磁干扰测量系统和26m射电望远镜对台址主要干扰信号特征及来源进行测量分析。依据测量和分析结果，采用屏蔽及滤波技术对望远镜观测室内部主要干扰源进行电磁防护，并针对屏蔽工程的有效性进行测量评估，结果表明，采用的电磁屏蔽措施有效。另外，提出了初步南山无线电宁静区保护办法缓解台址外部电磁干扰。     

大口径射电望远镜电磁兼容评估技术研究

电磁兼容性是设备或系统的重要性能指标, 也是保障系统的工作效能和提高系统可靠性的重要因素. 大口径射电望远镜运行阶段, 台址周围无线电业务及内部潜在的电磁干扰会降低观测系统灵敏度、影响天文观测的质量. 本论文针对拟建的新疆110 m全向可动射电望远镜(Qi Tai raido Telescope, QTT)开展了系统电磁兼容评估技术及控制方法研究, 具有重要的工程应用价值. 首先, 依据现有电波环境测量方法的不足, 深入分析了仪器设备的关键参数配置方法及测量时间计算方法, 采用Y因子法校准测量数据, 提出一种准实时电波环境测量方法. 面向高重复性宽带频谱, 分析了宽带频谱信号和噪声特征, 结合标准差理论, 提出一种基于邻值比较的信噪分离方法, 并采用邻值统计方法优化关键参数, 提高信噪分离精度. 针对QTT台址, 开发了自动化电波环境监测系统, 该系统6 GHz以下频段系统增益大于40 dB, 系统噪声系数小于2 dB, 测量不确定度小于1.49 dB, 具有极高的系统灵敏度和测量精度; 分析了频谱监测数据流, 设计了基于HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format version 5)的数据存储格式, 开发了自动化电波环境测量和监控软件及数据处理软件. 依据QTT台址长期监测数据, 评估分析了台址电磁环境、主要干扰源特征及其影响. 其次, 提出大口径射电望远镜馈源口面干扰电平限值量化方法, 建立了基于台址地形的电波传播模型, 分析了现有电波传播模型的优缺点及适应性, 结合QTT台址实际地形及地质特征, 采用Longley-Rice和Two-Ray电波传播模型, 预测分析了QTT台址潜在干扰区域电磁干扰达到射电望远镜的电波路径衰减, 结合大口径射电望远镜天线增益量化方法, 提出设备所在位置干扰电平限值量化方法, 运用该方法对QTT台址潜在干扰区域的干扰电平限值进行量化. 依据设备所在位置干扰电平限值, 调研分析了国内外军用、民用电磁兼容测量标准, 结合电磁干扰对射电天文观测的影响, 提出一种大口径射电望远镜电磁兼容控制方法, 解决了现有电波暗室测量系统无法直接测量评估电子设备电磁兼容的问题, 该电磁兼容控制方法计划应用于QTT建设及运行阶段, 确保系统拥有良好的电磁兼容性. 最后, 依据QTT台址潜在干扰区域干扰电平限值, 结合典型电子设备电磁辐射频谱, 分析了QTT电磁兼容设计需求, 提出电磁兼容设计初步方案. 另外, 针对台址建筑设施内的中低电磁辐射干扰源, 提出一种低成本建筑屏蔽方法, 应用于QTT台址现有建筑.     

An agile very low frequency radio spectrum explorer

The very low frequency(VLF) regime below 30 MHz in the electromagnetic spectrum has presently been drawing global attention in radio astronomical research due to its potentially significant science outcomes exploring many unknown extragalactic sources,transients,and so on.However,the nontransparency of the Earth's ionosphere,ionospheric distortion and artificial radio frequency interference(RFI) have made it difficult to detect the VLF celestial radio emission with ground-based instruments.A straightforward solution to overcome these problems is a space-based VLF radio telescope,just like the VLF radio instruments onboard the Chang'E-4 spacecraft.But building such a space telescope would be inevitably costly and technically challenging.The alternative approach would be then a ground-based VLF radio telescope.Particularly,in the period of post 2020 when the solar and terrestrial ionospheric activities are expected to be in a 'calm' state,it will provide us a good chance to perform VLF ground-based radio observations.Anticipating such an opportunity,we built an agile VLF radio spectrum explorer co-located with the currently operational Mingantu Spectra Radio Heliograph(MUSER).The instrument includes four antennas operating in the VLF frequency range 1-70 MHz.Along with them,we employ an eight-channel analog and digital receivers to amplify,digitize and process the radio signals received by the antennas.We present in the paper this VLF radio spectrum explorer and the instrument will be useful for celestial studies of VLF radio emissions.     

Radio frequency self-interference from a data processing centre at a radio telescope site

Apart from externally generated Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), the occurrence of self-interference is a major concern at any modern radio telescope site. Antenna servo motor controllers, data acquisition processors, and fast computing capabilities operate very close to extremely sensitive and wideband radio astronomical receivers. In this paper, we present a set of measurements of the RFI level generated by a cluster of computers that will be installed at the site of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). The measured levels are compared to Recommendation ITU-R RA.769-2, which gives the threshold levels for interference detrimental to radio astronomy observations. Our analysis shows that, with proper shielding of the noisiest devices, it will be possible to preserve the present excellent RFI conditions of the SRT site.     

Rfi Mitigation And The Ska

Radio frequency interference (RFI) has plagued radio astronomy from its inception. The Workshop on the Mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference in Radio Astronomy (RFI2004) was held in Penticton, BC, Canada in July 2004 in order to consider the prognosis for the RFI problem, in particular as it impacts the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA). This paper concludes that RFI is unlikely to be a “showstopper” in achieving SKA science goals, but that improved RFI mitigation technology may nevertheless be essential in order to take advantage of the vastly improved sensitivity, bandwidth, and field of view. Reported results provide some optimism that the desired improvements in RFI mitigation technology are possible, but indicate that much more work is required.     

The SumThreshold Method for Radio Frequency Interference Detection

Radio frequency interference (RFI) is one of the main challenges in the search of radio targets and their accurate analysis. The efficient RFI detection and mitigation techniques are required in the radio data processing. Existing RFI mitigation algorithms typically fall into three categories: component decomposition methods, threshold-based methods, and machine learning methods. The threshold-based algorithms are widely used in real applications because of its clear principle, simple structure, and easily implementation. Especially, the SumThreshold method is becoming more concerned for its good performance in RFI detection. Therefore, this work investigates the principles and algorithm of SumThreshold, and discusses its characteristics and applicability.     

射频干扰检测的SumThreshold算法

射频干扰(Radio Frequency Interference, RFI)是射电目标搜寻和精确分析研究的关键影响因素,因此RFI检测是相关数据处理中的一个重要环节.已有RFI检测方法可分为成分分解法、阈值分析法、机器学习类方法.从应用广泛性和可解释性方面考虑,阈值分析法最具代表性,特别是SumThreshold是近年备受关注的一个RFI检测方法.从SumThreshold方法的原理、算法设计、优化要点、适用性等方面进行介绍和探讨,以供同行参考.     

射电望远镜远场区域强干扰源规避方法研究

随着频率使用率的提高, 射电天文台址地面或空间存在强电磁干扰致使望远镜接收机系统处于非线性状态. 为减少强电磁干扰的影响、提高天文观测效率, 提出了一种基于望远镜远场区域的强干扰源规避方法. 首先, 通过仿真分析确定的射电望远镜远场方向图, 结合望远镜与干扰源之间的位置关系, 分析了强电磁干扰到达射电望远镜焦点处的功率响应, 并依据接收机第2阶中频放大器性能参数, 确定射电望远镜处于非饱和状态的规避角度计算方法. 其次, 采用该方法计算分析了民航飞机对射电望远镜的影响, 若民航飞机上有主动发射的干扰源, 且不经过反射等传播现象, 当射电望远镜主波束轴偏开一定方向后, 可有效降低对射电望远镜的干扰强度.     

Site selection for a radio astronomy observatory in Turkey: atmospherical, meteorological, and radio frequency analyses

Selecting the future site for a large Turkish radio telescope is a key issue. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is now in the stage of construction at a site near Karaman City, in Turkey. A single-dish parabolic radio antenna of 30?C40 m will be installed near a building that will contain offices, laboratories, and living accommodations. After a systematic survey of atmospheric, meteorological, and radio frequency interference (RFI) analyses, site selection studies were performed in a predetermined location in Turkey during 2007 and 2008. In this paper, we described the experimental procedure and the RFI measurements on our potential candidate??s sites in Turkey, covering the frequency band from 1 to 40 GHz.     

Scalable framework of intelligent RFI flagging for large-scale HI survey data from FAST

Radio frequency interference (RFI) identification is a key step in radio data processing. In order to efficiently process huge volumes of data produced by modern large radio telescopes, such as the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), exceptional balance between accuracy and performance (throughput) is required for RFI flagging algorithms. RFI-Net is a single-process RFI identification package based on deep learning technique, and has achieved a higher flagging accuracy than the classical SumThreshold method. In this paper, we present a scalable RFI flagging toolkit, which can drive parallel workflows on multi-CPU and multi-GPU clusters, with RFI-Net as its core detector. It can automatically schedule the workload and aggregate itself after errors according to the running environment. Moreover, its main components are all pluggable, and can be easily customized according to requirements. The experiments with real data of FAST showed that using eight parallel workflows, the toolkit can process sky survey data at a speed of 66.79 GB/h, which means quasi-real-time RFI flagging can be achieved considering the data rate of FAST extragalactic spectral line observations.     

相控阵馈源MVDR波束合成器缓解RFI仿真

相控阵馈源(Phased array feeds, PAFs)接收机作为下一代微波接收机, 为大口径射电天文望远镜的射电干扰(Radio Frequency Interference, RFI)缓解工作带来了新的解决方法. PAFs接收机对射电望远镜焦平面的电磁波进行空域采样, 返回时域阵列信号, 使用最小方差无失真响应(Minimum Variance Distortionless Response, MVDR)波束合成器可以自适应地识别RFI的方向, 同时抑制RFI在输出信号中的功率, 从而达到提升射电望远镜灵敏度的效果. 仿真结果表明MVDR波束合成器对有源高能量的射电干扰有很强的识别能力和一定程度的缓解能力, 同时, 该波束合成器对各阵元信道中加性噪声累积引起的无源干扰有很强的抑制能力, 因此, PAFs接收机的MVDR波束合成器可以增强日益复杂电磁波环境下射电望远镜的抗干扰能力.     

The Dynamic Spectrum of Interplanetary Scintillation: First Solar Wind Observations on LOFAR

The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is a next-generation radio telescope which uses thousands of stationary dipoles to observe celestial phenomena. These dipoles are grouped in various ‘stations’ which are centred on the Netherlands with additional ‘stations’ across Europe. The telescope is designed to operate at frequencies from 10 to 240 MHz with very large fractional bandwidths (25?–?100 %). Several ‘beam-formed’ observing modes are now operational and the system is designed to output data with high time and frequency resolution, which are highly configurable. This makes LOFAR eminently suited for dynamic spectrum measurements with applications in solar and planetary physics. In this paper we describe progress in developing automated data analysis routines to compute dynamic spectra from LOFAR time–frequency data, including correction for the antenna response across the radio frequency pass-band and mitigation of terrestrial radio-frequency interference (RFI). We apply these data routines to observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS), commonly used to infer solar wind velocity and density information, and present initial science results.     

基于自适应滤波的干扰消除方法研究

射电天文信号非常微弱,电磁环境对射电望远镜观测至关重要,通常可以利用地形、建立无线电宁静区、进行电磁屏蔽与防护等手段来减小电磁干扰.然而,仍有一些干扰难以屏蔽.故提出了一种基于自适应滤波的干扰消除方法,可用于复杂噪声环境中天文信号的提取.该方法借助自适应横向滤波器,采用最小均方(Least Mean Square, LMS)误差算法,以系统误差和收敛性为评判标准,通过改变步长与阶数对滤波效果进行优化,仿真结果显示该滤波器能在保证算法收敛的前提下有效提取信号.为了检验该算法的有效性,选取了新疆天文台南山26 m射电望远镜和Parkes 64 m射电望远镜记录的观测数据,采用设计的滤波器分别对不同的实测数据进行测试,验证了该滤波器的有效性.理论分析与实验结果一致表明该方法能有效消除天文观测中的干扰信号,具有一定的实用性.     

FAST VLBI: current status and future plans

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)is the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world,and is now being commissioned after the first light in September 2016.Very long baseline interferometry(VLBI)is among the key science topics according to the original design.The FAST VLBI system has been established,and the first VLBI fringe has been successfully obtained.FAST will significantly improve the sensitivity of the existing VLBI networks in the future,and some science projects in need of high sensitivity will benefit from its participation.     

EMC design for actuators in the FAST reflector

An active reflector is one of the three main innovations incorporated in the Five-hundredmeter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST).The deformation of such a huge spherically shaped reflector into different transient parabolic shapes is achieved by using 2225 hydraulic actuators which change the position of the 2225 nodes through the connected down tied cables.For each different tracking process of the telescope,more than 1/3 of these 2225 actuators must be in operation to tune the parabolic aperture accurately and meet the surface error restriction.This means that some of these actuators are inevitably located within the main beam of the receiver,and Electromagnetic Interference(EMI)from the actuators must be mitigated to ensure the scientific output of the telescope.Based on the threshold level of interference detrimental to radio astronomy described in ITU-R Recommendation RA.769 and EMI measurements,the shielding efficiency(SE)requirement for each actuator is set to be 80 d B in the frequency range from 70 MHz to 3 GHz.Therefore,Electromagnetic Compatibility(EMC)was taken into account in the actuator design by measures such as power line filters,optical fibers,shielding enclosures and other structural measures.In 2015,all the actuators had been installed at the FAST site.Till now,no apparent EMI from the actuators has been detected by the receiver,which demonstrates the effectiveness of these EMC measures.     

Study of Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation Method Based on Wavelet Transform

In radio astronomy observations, radio frequency interference (RFI) is mixed into the telescope receiving system in various forms. The existence of RFI brings misjudgment to the observation or reduces the observational signal-to-noise ratio. In recent years, the domestic and overseas radio astronomy has developed rapidly. Large-scale radio telescopes and telescope arrays at home and abroad have been constructed successively. Observation sensitivity is greatly improved, and the influence of RFI is particularly prominent. With the development of science and technology and the intensification of human activities, the RFI has become increasingly serious and irreversible. We propose to use the two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform method to analyze the data of radio astronomy observations, and to perform wavelet transform on the time-frequency sequence output by the telescope system. According to the wavelet coefficients, the every component in the original signal is separated, and the corresponding threshold value is obtained by the statistics on each component. Each component is compared with the threshold to identify the interference component, and to mark it for removal. This method is used to process the actual observation data. The results show that this method can well mark and eliminate the interference signal, and improve the observational signal-to-noise ratio.     

Research on Receiver Anti-RFI of Delingha 13.7 m Telescope

In astronomical observations, the radio frequency interference (RFI) will cause pseudo spectra and reduce the reliability and validity of observational data. The RFI mitigation, which includes many technical innovations of devices and the method studies of data processing, aims at reducing the influence of RFI on the radio astronomical observation. Various efforts were made to improve the anti-RFI capability of the multi-beam receiver (Superconducting Spectroscopic Array Receiver, SSAR) of the Delingha 13.7 m telescope. The interference transmission path was analyzed. The concepts of the device RFI direct coupling coefficient and the device RFI system coupling coefficient were proposed. The proportions of interference introduced in the receiver system by the different devices were quantified, and the interference-susceptible devices in the system were located. After the anti-RFI treatment of the interference-susceptible devices, the anti-RFI capability of the receiver system is improved by 30 dB in average, and the astronomical observation efficiency of the telescope is increased by more than 10%.     

德令哈13.7m望远镜接收机抗射频干扰研究

在天文观测中,射频干扰会造成假谱,降低数据的可靠性和有效性.射频干扰消减旨在减少干扰信号对射电天文观测的影响,包含器件方面的技术革新和数据处理领域的方法研究.针对德令哈13.7 m望远镜接收机中频部分引入的射频干扰,通过优化中频器件的抗射频干扰能力,提高了接收机的整体抗射频干扰能力,以主动消除方法来减少射频干扰耦合到接收机内部.分析了接收机干扰的传输路径,提出了器件射频干扰的直接耦合系数和器件射频干扰的系统耦合系数的概念,为定位干扰敏感器件并量化干扰引入比重提供了基础.经过抗射频干扰优化后,接收机抗干扰能力改善30 dB左右,望远镜的天文观测效率提高10%以上.     

基于小波变换的射频干扰消除方法的研究

在射电天文观测中,射频干扰(Radio Frequency Interference, RFI)会以多种形式混入望远镜接收系统,给观测带来误判或者降低观测信噪比.近年来国内国际射电天文快速发展,国内国际大型射电望远镜和阵列先后建设,观测灵敏度大为提高,射频干扰的影响尤为突出.随着科技发展和人类活动的加剧,射频干扰日益严重且不可逆转.提出利用2维离散小波变换的方法分析射电天文观测的数据,对望远镜系统输出的时间频率序列进行小波变换,根据小波系数分离出原始信号中各分量,每个分量统计得到相应的阈值,将各分量与阈值相比较识别干扰成分并标记去除.利用该方法对实际观测数据进行了处理,结果表明该方法能够很好地标记并消减干扰信号,且提高了观测的信噪比.