Ultra-Low-Frequency Radio Astronomy Observations from a Selenocentric Orbit: first results of the Longjiang-2 experiment

Abstract

This paper introduces the first results of observations with the Ultra-Long-Wavelength (ULW) -- Low Frequency Interferometer and Spectrometer (LFIS) on board the selenocentric satellite Longjiang-2. We present a brief description of the satellite and focus on the LFIS payload. The in-orbit commissioning confirmed a reliable operational status of the instrumentation. We also present results of a transition observation, which offers unique measurements on several novel aspects. We estimate the RFI suppression required for such a radio astronomy instrumentation at the Moon distances from Earth to be of the order of 80 dB. We analyse a method of separating Earth- and satellite-originated radio frequency interference (RFI). It is found that the RFI level at frequencies lower than a few MHz is smaller than the receiver noise floor.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy; 22 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (6)

• The radio emission from the Galaxy at 22 MHz
• Science with a lunar low-frequency array: from the dark ages of the Universe to nearby exoplanets
• A Roadmap towards a Space-based Radio Telescope for Ultra-Low Frequency Radio Astronomy
• A Space-Based Observational Strategy for Characterizing the First Stars and Galaxies Using the Redshifted 21-cm Global Spectrum
• Antenna Design and Implementation for the Future Space Ultra-Long Wavelength Radio Telescope
• A Space-based Decametric Wavelength Radio Telescope Concept

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The Electrical Design of a Membrane Antenna for Lunar-based Low-frequency Radio Telescope
• Synthesis imaging with a lunar orbit array: I. global sky map and its systematics
• The impact of lunar topography on the 21-cm power spectrum for grid-based arrays : Insights for the Dark-ages EXplorer (DEX)