Technical Program


 Monday, October 17
07:30 Registration
8:50 – 10:50 S01: Opening Session – Session Chair : Joel T. Johnson
8:50 – 9:10 Organizing Committee
Conference Opening
9:10 – 9:50 Vanessa Moss (University of Sydney, Australia), Ron Ekers and John Reynolds
The Impact of RFI on Radio Astronomy Science
9:50 – 10:30 David Le Vine (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), Jeffrey R. Piepmeier and Joel T. Johnson
RFI and Remote Sensing from Space
10:30 – 10:50 Michael Davis, David M. Le Vine, Liese van Zee, Jasmeet Judge, William Blackwell, Todd Gaier, Darrel Emerson, Amy Lovell, Paul Feldman, Paul Siqueira and Greg Taylor (University of New Mexico, USA)
The Committee on Radio Frequencies: Protecting the Scientific Use of the Radio Spectrum
10:50 – 11:10 Coffee break
11:10 – 12:50 S02: RFI Mitigation: General Techniques and Their Applications to Radio Astronomy – Session Chair: Brian D. Jeffs
11:10 – 11:50 Willlem Baan (ASTRON, The Netherlands) and Albert-Jan Boonstra

Interference Mitigation and Excision: A Review
11:50 – 12:10 Michael R. Inggs, Amit K. Mishra (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Carel van der Merwe
FM Band Commensal Radar Technology Used for Air Situation Awareness over Radio Astronomy Reserves
12:10 – 12:30 Pravin Raybole, Shri. Suresh Kumar (GMRT/NCRA-TIFR, India), Santaji Katore and Sanjeet Rai
Real Time Prediction, Detection and Co-Existing with Satellite Interference at GMRT
12:30 – 12:50 Kaushal D. Buch (GMRT/NCRA-TIFR, India), Yashwant Gupta, Shruti Bhatporia, Swapnil Nalawade, Kishor Naik and Ajithkumar B.
Real-Time RFI Excision for the GMRT Wide-Band Correlator
12:50 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 16:00 S03: RFI and the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Mission (SMOS) – Session Chairs: Paolo de Matthaeis and Roger Oliva-Balague
14:00 – 14:40 Yann Kerr (CESBIO-CNES, France), Philippe Richaume, Roger Oliva-Balague, Francois Cabot, Eric Anterrieu and Elena Daganzo-Eusebio

SMOS and RFI: A Long Story
14:40 – 15:00 Manuel Castillo, Ekhi Uranga (ESA/ESAC, Spain), Roger Oliva-Balague, Elena Daganzo-Eusebio, Yann Kerr and Antonio de La Fuente
ESAC RFI Survey in the SMOS 1400–1427 MHz Passive Band
15:00 – 15:20 Eric Anterrieu, Ali Khazaal, Francois Cabot (CESBIO-CNES, France) and Yann Kerr
Accurate Geolocation of RFI Sources from SMOS Interferometric Data
15:20 – 15:40 Francois Cabot (CESBIO-CNES, France), Eric Anterrieu, Philippe Richaume, Yann Kerr and Ali Khazaal
RFI Assessment and Filtering Through SMOS Data Processing
15:40 – 16:00 Roger Oliva-Balague (ESA/ESAC, Spain), Elena Daganzo-Eusebio, Yann Kerr, Manuel Castillo and Ekhi Uranga
RFI Can Be Switched Off: The SMOS Example
16:00 – 16:20 Coffee break
16:20 – 18:20 S04: Self-RFI Suppression in Astronomy – Session Chair: Amit K. Mishra
16:20 – 16:40 Lister Staveley-Smith (International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research / University of WA, Australia), Bi-Qing For, Fuheng Liang, Wolfram Freudling and Martin Zwaan

HI RFI Environment at Large Single-Dish Telescopes
16:40 – 17:00 Robert P. Millenaar (Square Kilometre Array, South Africa) and Abraham J. Otto
Innovations in Instrumentation for RFI Monitoring
17:00 – 17:20 Michiel Brentjens (ASTRON, The Netherlands) and Willem A. Baan
Interference Due to Wind Turbines at 10–200 MHz
17:20 – 17:40 Marcin Sokolowski (ICRAR, Australia), T. Ellement and Randall B. Wayth
The Statistics of Radio Frequency Interference Propagating from Long Distances to the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory
17:40 – 18:00 Bin Li and Sun Yunxia (Shanghay Astronomical Observatory, China)
RFI Protection at the Tianma Telescope Site
18:00 – 18:20 Stuart Harper (University of Manchester, UK)
Impact of RFI from Satellites on Future Hi Intensity Mapping Experiments
19:00 – 20:30 Welcome reception

Tuesday, October 18
8:30 – 10:30 S05: Spatial Approaches – Session Chair: Gregory Hellbourg
8:30 – 9:10 Brian D. Jeffs (Brigham Young University, USA), Richard A. Black and Karl F. Warnick

Array Processing Methods for Radio Astronomical RFI Mitigation: Assessment of the State of the Art
9:10 – 9:30 Jan-Willem Steeb (Stellenbosch University, South Africa), David B. Davidson and Stefan J. Wijnholds

Spatial Filtering of Near-Field Radio Frequency Interference at a LOFAR LBA Station
9:30 – 9:50 Richard Black (Brigham Young University, USA) and Brian D. Jeffs
Spatial Null Broadening for Smeared RFI Mitigation in Phased Array Feed Radio Astronomy
9:50 – 10:10 Peter Wyckoff (Pre-Detection Solutions LLC, USA) and Gregory Hellbourg
Polar Excision for RFI Mitigation in Radio Astronomy
10:10 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 12:30 S06: RFI and Passive Remote Sensing Below 4 GHz – Session Chairs: David M. Le Vine and Yann Kerr
10:30 – 11:10 Priscilla N. Mohammed (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), Jeffrey R. Piepmeier, Joel T. Johnson and Alexandra Bringer
Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Microwave Radiometer Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation: On Orbit Results
11:10 – 11:30 Edward Kim (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), Lynn Miles, Mark Wong and Albert Wu
Application of SMAP Spaceborne RFI Detection Schemes to Airborne Earth Sensing at L-Band
11:30 – 11:50 Joel T. Johnson (Ohio State University, USA), Kenneth C. Jezek , Mustafa Aksoy, Alexandra Bringer, Mark Andrews, Hongkun Li, Chi-Chih Chen, Domenic Belgiovane, Vladimir Leuski, Giovanni Macelloni and Marco Brogioni
The Ultra-Wideband Software-Defined Radiometer (UWBRAD) for Ice Sheet Internal Temperature Sensing: RFI Detection and Filtering
11:50 – 12:10 Elena Daganzo-Eusebio, Roger Oliva-Balague (ESA/ESTEC, The Netherlands), Yann Kerr, Manuel Castillo and Ekhi Uranga
Extended RFI Sources in SMOS Data: Japan
12:10 – 12:30 Yan Soldo, Paolo de Matthaeis (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA) and David M. Le Vine
L-Band RFI in Japan
12:30 Lunch distribution and Dispatch for VLA tour
14:00 – 18:30 VLA Tour

Wednesday, October 9
8:30 – 10:30 S07: RFI Monitoring in Radio Astronomy – Session Chair: Willem Baan
8:30 – 8:50 Willem A. Baan (ASTRON, The Netherlands)

Measuring Radio Frequency Interference
8:50 – 9:10 Abraham J. Otto (Square Kilometre Array, South Africa), Robert P. Millenaar and Paul S. van der Merwe
Characterising RFI for SKA Phase 1
9:10 – 9:30 Daniel J. Mertely (NRAO, USA)

RF Emissions Characterization in an RF Reverberation Chamber
9:30 – 9:50 Vinand Prayag (University of Mauritius, Mauritius), Nazir Vydelingum, Girish Kumar Beeharry and Michael R. Inggs
Radio Frequency Interference in Mauritius (Remote)
9:50 – 10:10 Mark Bentum (ASTRON, The Netherlands) and Albert-Jan Boonstra
The RFI Situation for a Space-Based Low-Frequency Radio Astronomy Instrument (Remote)
10:10 – 10:30 Diakanua Nkazi and Serge Tshibangu (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
A Sustainable Petroleum Practice Around The SKA Protected Areas (Remote)
10:30 – 10:50 Coffee break
10:50 – 11:50 S08: Spectrum Management for Remote Sensing – Session Chair: Jeffrey Piepmeier
10:50 – 11:30 Edoardo Marelli and Elena Daganzo-Eusebio (ESA/ESTEC, The Netherlands)
Frequency Management for Remote Sensing: the ESA Perspective (Remote)
11:30 – 11:50 Thomas von Deak (NASA Glenn Research Center, USA) and Daniel Bishop
Analysis Methodologies for Assessing RF Interference Impact on Space Based Remote Sensor Measurements
11:50 – 12:50 S09: RFI in Active Remote Sensing Systems – Session Chair: Thomas von Deak
11:50 – 12:30 Michael Spencer (NASA JPL, USA)
Spectrum Issues Faced by Active Remote Sensing: Radio Frequency Interference and Operational Restrictions
12:30 – 12:50 Tobias Bollian (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), Seung-Kuk Lee, Rafael Rincon, Batuhan Osmanoglu and Temilola Fatoyinbo
RFI Suppression in EcoSAR Data Using Music and Digital Beamforming
12:50 – 13:50 Lunch break


13:50 – 15:50 S10: Spectrum Management for Radio Astronomy – Session Chair: Tasso Tzioumis
13:50 – 14:30 Harvey Liszt (NRAO, USA)
Spectrum Management in Theory and Practice, and its Relationship with Interference and RFI Mitigation
14:30 – 14:50 Selaelo Matlhane (Square Kilometre Array, South Africa)
Wicked Problems of the Karoo Central Astronomy Advantage Areas
14:50 – 15:10 Haiyan Zhang (National Astronomical Observatories of CAS, China), Hengqian Gan, Youling Yue, Jianmin Sun, Hao Hu, Shijie Huang, Jinyou Song, Bo Peng and Rendong Nan
Maintenance of FAST Radio Quiet Zone
15:10 – 15:30 Qi Liu (XinJiang Astronomical Observatory, China), Ye Liu , Na Wang and Mao-Zheng Chen
Key Areas Interference Level Limits Quantized for 110m Radio Telescope Site
15:30 – 15:50 Yahia Ramadan, Yucheng Dai, Hlaing Minn (University of Texas at Dallas, USA) and Fabiano Rodrigues
Spectrum Sharing Between WiFi and Radio Astronomy Systems
15:50 – 16:10 Coffee break


16:10 – 18:10 S11: RFI Detection, Identification and Characterization – Session Chair: André Offringa
16:10 – 16:50 Dan Werthimer (University of California at Berkeley, USA)

Is Anybody Out There?
16:50 – 17:10 Vishal Gajjar (University of California at Berkeley, USA), Jeff Cobb, Dan Werthimer, Eric Korpela, Matt Lebofsky and Andrew Siemion
RFI Mitigation from Commensal SETI Surveys
17:10 – 17:30 Alan Erickson (NRAO, USA) and Kerry Shores
Architecture of a Database to Store Comprehensive RFI Data for Use in a Wide Variety of Instruments
17:30 – 17:50 Daniel Czech, Amit K. Mishra (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Michael R. Inggs
Identifying Radio Frequency Interference with Hidden Markov Models
17:50 – 18:10 Daniel Czech, Amit K. Mishra (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Michael R. Inggs
A Canonical Interferencelet-Based Approach to RFI Identification
19:30 – 22:00 Conference dinner

Thursday, October 20
8:30 – 10:30 S12: RFI and Passive Remote Sensing Above 4 GHz – Session Chairs: Albin Gasiewski and Sidhart Misra
8:30 – 9:10 Jeffrey R. Piepmeier (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA)

Radio Frequency Interference in Earth-Observing Microwave Radiometers Operating Within Shared Spectrum Allocations
9:10 – 9:30 David W. Draper (Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, USA)

Terrestrial and Space-Based RFI Observed by the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) Within NTIA Semi-Protected Passive Earth Exploration Bands at 10.65 and 18.7 GHz
9:30 – 9:50 Steen S. Kristensen (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark), Jan E. Balling, Mirjana Tasevska, and Niels Skou
Real Time Processor for RFI Detection and Mitigation On-Board Future Spaceborne Radiometer Missions
9:50 – 10:10 Joel T. Johnson, Chi-Chi Chen, Andrew O'Brien , Graeme E. Smith, Christa McKelvey (Ohio State University, USA), Mark Andrews, Chris Ball, Landon Garry, Sidharth Misra, Shannon Brown, Jonathan Kocz, Robert Jarnot, Damon C. Bradley, Priscilla N. Mohammed, Jared F. Lucey, Jeffrey R. Piepmeier, Kevin Horgan and Michael A. Solly
The CubeSat Radiometer Radio Frequency Interference Technology Validation (CubeRRT) Mission
10:10 – 10:30 Sidhart Misra (NASA JPL, USA), Jonathon Kocz, Robert Jarnot, Shannon Brown and Joel T. Johnson
A Wide-Band On-Board Radio Frequency Interference Mitigating Digital Back-End System for the CubeRRT Cubesat Mission
10:30 – 10:50 Coffee break
10:50 – 12:50 S13: Hardware and Sofware Approaches for RFI Detection and Mitigation – Session Chair: Richard Prestage
10:50 – 11:10 Phaneendra Kumar Bikkina (Alphacore Inc., USA), Esko Mikkola, Lloyd Linder and Andrew Levy
RFI Mitigating Receiver Back-End for Radiometers
11:10 – 11:30 Ahmed Soliman (California Institute of Technology, USA), Sander Weinreb, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Chris Eckert and Lawrence Hilliard
Quad-Ridge Flared Horn Feed with Internal RFI Band Rejection Filter (Remote)
11:30 – 11:50 Gregory Hellbourg (UC Berkeley, USA), Keith Bannister and Aidan Hotan
Spatial Filtering Experiment with the ASKAP Beta Array
11:50 – 12:10 Cedric Dumez-Viou (Station de Radioastronomie Nançay, France), Gregory Hellbourg, Rodolphe Weber, Karim Abed-Meraim, Christophe Taffoureau and Steve Torchinsky
Two RFI Mitigation Experiments with the Embrace Demonstrator
12:10 – 12:30 Eric Korpela (UC Berkeley, USA)
RFI Rejection in the SETI@home Pipeline : Status and Plans
12:30 – 12:50 Richard Prestage (NRAO, USA)
Towards Production, Real-Time RFI Mitigation Implementations for Single Dish Radio Telescopes
12:50 – 13:50 Lunch break

13:50 – 15:50 S14: RFI Characterization – Session Chair: Harvey Liszt
13:50 – 14:10 Balthasar T. Indermühle (CSIRO, Australia), Lisa Harvey-Smith, Carol Wilson and Kate Chow
The ASKAP RFI Environment as Seen Through BETA
14:10 – 14:30 Shri S. Suresh Kumar (GMRT/NCRA-TIFR, India), Pravin Raybole, Sanjeet Rai and Ankur
Characterising and Mitigating RFI at the GMRT
14:30 – 14:50 André Offringa (ASTRON, The Netherlands)
Using the AOFLAGGER for RFI Detection
14:50 – 15:10 Bruno J. Martins and Urvashi Rau (NRAO, USA)
Automated Tuning of RFI Identification and Flagging Algorithms
15:10 – 15:30 Thushara K. Gunaratne (NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Canada), Michael P. Rupen and Brent Carlson
RFI Detection and Flagging in the SKA1-Mid Correlator Beamformer
15:30 – 15:50 Robert V. Van Nieuwpoort (Netherlands eScience Center, The Netherlands) and Hanno Spreeuw
Towards Exascale Real-Time RFI Mitigation
15:50 – 16:10 Coffee break

16:10 – 17:10 S15: Kurtosis, Higher Order Statistics and Applications – Session Chair: Dan Werthimer
16:10 – 16:30 Adam J. Schoenwald (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), Damon C. Bradley, Priscilla N. Mohammed, Jeffrey R. Piepmeier, Mark Wong and Armen Gholian

Hardware Optimization and Performance Improvements for a Complex Signal Kurtosis Radio-Frequency Interference Detector
16:30 – 16:50 Gelu M. Nita (New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA), Dale E. Gary and Gregory Hellbourg

The Quantized Spectral Kurtosis Estimator
16:50 – 17:10 Frank Schinzel (NRAO, USA)
Low-Frequency Interference, Mitigation, and Excision at The Long Wavelength Array in New Mexico

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