Selection of radio astronomical observation sites and its dependence on human generated RFI

Roslan, Umar and Zamri, Zainal Abidin and Zainol Abidin, Ibrahim (2014) Selection of radio astronomical observation sites and its dependence on human generated RFI. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 14 (2). pp. 241-248. ISSN 16744527

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Abstract

We investigate the influence of population density on radio-frequency interference (RFI) affecting radio astronomy. We use a new method to quantify the thresh-old of population density in order to determine the most suitable lower limit for site selection of a radio quiet zone (RQZ). We found that there is a certain trend in the population density-RFI graph that increases rapidly at lower values and slows down to almost flat at higher values. We use this trend to identify the thresholds for population density that produce RFI. Using this method we found that, for frequencies up to 2.8 GHz, low, medium and high population densities affecting radio astronomy are below 150 ppl km−2, between 150 ppl km−2and 5125 ppl km−2, and above5125 ppl km−2respectively. We also investigate the effect of population density on the environment of RFI in three astronomical windows, namely the deuterium, hydro-gen and hydroxyl lines. We find that a polynomial fitting to the population density produces a similar trend, giving similar thresholds for the effect of population density. We then compare our interference values to the standard threshold levels used by the International Telecommunication Union within these astronomical windows.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: telescopes — cosmology: observations — methods: data analysis —wave scattering
Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions: Faculty of Islamic Contemporary Studies
Depositing User: Syahmi Manaf
Date Deposited: 13 Sep 2022 05:33
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2022 05:33
URI: http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/id/eprint/5221

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