L-Band RFI as Experienced During Airborne Campaigns in Preparation for SMOS

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 1398 - 1407
• Main Authors: Skou, N., Misra, S., Balling, J.E., Kristensen, S.S., Sobjaerg, S.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-03-2010; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied geophysics; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; European Space Agency; Exact sciences and technology; Geophysical measurements; Internal geophysics; Kurtosis; L-band; Marine; Meteorology; microwave; Moisture measurement; Oceans; radio-frequency interference (RFI); Radiofrequency interference; radiometer; Radiometers; Radiometry; Salinity; Sea measurements; Signatures; SMOS mission; Soil measurements; Soil moisture; Space missions; Supplying; Australia; microwaves; salinity; detection; soil moisture; Australasia; kurtosis; interferences; L-band; frequency; radio-frequency interference (RFI); radiometer; instruments; microwave
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2009.2031637

In support of the European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, a number of soil moisture and sea salinity campaigns, including airborne L-band radiometer measurements, have been carried out. The radiometer used in this context is fully polarimetric and has built-in radio-frequency-interference (RFI)-detection capabilities. Thus, the instrument, in addition to supplying L-band data to the geophysicists, also gave valuable information about the RFI environment. Campaigns were carried out in Australia and in a variety of European locations, resulting in the largest and most comprehensive data set available for assessing RFI at L-band. This paper introduces the radiometer system and how it detects RFI using the kurtosis method, reports on the percentage of data that are typically flagged as being corrupted by RFI, and gives a hint about geographical distribution. Also, examples of polarimetric signatures are given, and the possibility of detecting RFI using such data is discussed.