New Interference Detection, Mitigation, and Fusion Methodologies for Radio Astronomy

射电天文学是通过探测和分析无线电波来研究宇宙的学科。无线电波是电磁辐射的一种形式，就像光一样，但波长更长。这意味着无线电波可以穿过尘埃和气体云，这使它们成为研究可见光中被遮挡的物体的理想选择。射电天文学面临的挑战之一是存在大量的人为无线电干扰。这种干扰可能来自手机、电视和雷达系统等。它会使探测来自天文物体的微弱无线电信号变得困难。这项提议旨在通过开发新的算法和硬件来消除观测数据中的无线电干扰，以应对这一挑战。这些方法将免费提供给天文学社区，也可以用于其他领域，如自动驾驶汽车和防撞雷达。探测极弱的银河系信号和研究射电瞬变天空，包括快速射电爆发，是天文学的一个强大的新工具。由于快速射电爆发的瞬变性质，射频干扰(RFI)的剔除是至关重要的，也是测量灵敏度的限制因素。该项目邀请教师、研究生和本科生通过以下方式克服这一挑战：实时RFI检测、表征和标记；新RFI检测和表征算法的硬件原型；针对不同天文观测案例量身定做的性能指标。开发的算法、固件和软件将通过GitHub向世界射电天文学社区提供使用，通过在Green Bank天文台组织的夏季RFI研讨会进行宣传，并通过NSF的SpectrumX中心运行的计划进行传播。本科生将通过这个项目和西弗吉尼亚大学的研究学徒计划和暑期本科生研究体验等项目参与研究活动。这项工作中开发的新方法可以应用于射电天文学以外的任何使用雷达数据的组织，例如在汽车行业的自动驾驶汽车和防撞雷达的开发中。该项目由天文科学部和既定的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Radio astronomy is the study of the universe by detecting and analyzing radio waves. Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, just like light, but with a longer wavelength. This means that radio waves can travel through dust and gas clouds, which makes them ideal for studying objects that are obscured from view in visible light. One of the challenges of radio astronomy is that there is a lot of man-made radio interference. This interference can come from things like cell phones, televisions, and radar systems. It can make it difficult to detect faint radio signals from astronomical objects. This proposal aims to address this challenge by developing new algorithms and hardware to remove radio interference from observed data. The methods will be made freely available to the astronomical community and could also be used in other fields, such as self-driving cars and collision avoidance radar.The detection of extremely weak Galactic signals and the study of the radio transient sky, including fast radio bursts represent a powerful new tool for astronomy. Due to the transient nature of fast radio bursts, radio frequency interference (RFI) excision is critical and is a limiting factor for survey sensitivity. This project engages faculty, graduate students and undergraduates to address overcoming this challenge through developing ; real-time RFI detection, characterization, and flagging ; hardware prototyping of new RFI detection and characterization algorithms ; metrics of performance tailored to different astronomical observation cases. The algorithms, firmware, and software developed will be made available for use to the world radio astronomy community through GitHub, advertised through summer RFI workshops organized at the Green Bank Observatory, and disseminated through the programs run by the NSF's SpectrumX Center. Undergraduate students will participate in the research activities through this project and the programs such as Research Apprenticeship Program and Summer Undergraduate Research Experience at West Virginia University. The new methodology developed in this work can be applied beyond radio astronomy by any groups that use radar data, for instance in the development of self-driving cars and collision avoidance radar in the automotive industry.This project is jointly funded by the Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.