In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite
Radio interference in the uplink makes communication to satellites in the UHF amateur radio band (430–440 MHz) challenging for any satellite application. Interference measurements and characterisation can improve the robustness and reliability of the communication system design. Most published resul...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/13/16/3252/ 2023-09-05T13:17:35+02:00 In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite Gara Quintana-Diaz Torbjörn Ekman José Miguel Lago Agra Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Alberto González Muíño Fernando Aguado Agelet agris 2021-08-17 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 16; Pages: 3252 amateur radio band interference statistics in-orbit measurements radio interference SDR (Software-Defined Radio) small satellite stationarity time variability UHF Text 2021 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 2023-08-20T23:52:30Z Radio interference in the uplink makes communication to satellites in the UHF amateur radio band (430–440 MHz) challenging for any satellite application. Interference measurements and characterisation can improve the robustness and reliability of the communication system design. Most published results focus on average power spectrum measurements and heatmaps. We apply a low complexity estimator on an SDR (Software-Defined Radio) to study the interference’s dispersion and temporal variation on-board a small satellite as an alternative. Measuring the Local Mean Envelope (LME) variability with different averaging window lengths enables the estimation of time variability of the interference. The coefficient of variation for the LME indicates how much the signals vary in time and the spread in magnitudes. In this article, theoretical analysis, simulations, and laboratory results were used to validate this measurement method. In-orbit measurements were performed on-board the LUME-1 satellite. Band-limited interference with pulsed temporal behaviour and a high coefficient of variation was detected over North America, Europe, and the Arctic, where space-tracking radars are located. Wide-band pulsed interference with high time variability was also detected over Europe. These measurements show why operators that use a communication system designed for Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) at power levels obtained from heatmaps struggle to command their satellites. Text Arctic MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Remote Sensing 13 16 3252 |
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Open Polar |
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MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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English |
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amateur radio band interference statistics in-orbit measurements radio interference SDR (Software-Defined Radio) small satellite stationarity time variability UHF |
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amateur radio band interference statistics in-orbit measurements radio interference SDR (Software-Defined Radio) small satellite stationarity time variability UHF Gara Quintana-Diaz Torbjörn Ekman José Miguel Lago Agra Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Alberto González Muíño Fernando Aguado Agelet In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
topic_facet |
amateur radio band interference statistics in-orbit measurements radio interference SDR (Software-Defined Radio) small satellite stationarity time variability UHF |
description |
Radio interference in the uplink makes communication to satellites in the UHF amateur radio band (430–440 MHz) challenging for any satellite application. Interference measurements and characterisation can improve the robustness and reliability of the communication system design. Most published results focus on average power spectrum measurements and heatmaps. We apply a low complexity estimator on an SDR (Software-Defined Radio) to study the interference’s dispersion and temporal variation on-board a small satellite as an alternative. Measuring the Local Mean Envelope (LME) variability with different averaging window lengths enables the estimation of time variability of the interference. The coefficient of variation for the LME indicates how much the signals vary in time and the spread in magnitudes. In this article, theoretical analysis, simulations, and laboratory results were used to validate this measurement method. In-orbit measurements were performed on-board the LUME-1 satellite. Band-limited interference with pulsed temporal behaviour and a high coefficient of variation was detected over North America, Europe, and the Arctic, where space-tracking radars are located. Wide-band pulsed interference with high time variability was also detected over Europe. These measurements show why operators that use a communication system designed for Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) at power levels obtained from heatmaps struggle to command their satellites. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gara Quintana-Diaz Torbjörn Ekman José Miguel Lago Agra Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Alberto González Muíño Fernando Aguado Agelet |
author_facet |
Gara Quintana-Diaz Torbjörn Ekman José Miguel Lago Agra Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Alberto González Muíño Fernando Aguado Agelet |
author_sort |
Gara Quintana-Diaz |
title |
In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
title_short |
In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
title_full |
In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
title_fullStr |
In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
title_full_unstemmed |
In-Orbit Measurements and Analysis of Radio Interference in the UHF Amateur Radio Band from the LUME-1 Satellite |
title_sort |
in-orbit measurements and analysis of radio interference in the uhf amateur radio band from the lume-1 satellite |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 16; Pages: 3252 |
op_relation |
Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163252 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
16 |
container_start_page |
3252 |
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1776198702114799616 |