Enhanced detection and identification of satellites using an all-sky multi-frequency survey with prototype SKA-Low stations

Abstract

With the low Earth orbit environment becoming increasingly populated with artificial satellites, rockets, and debris, it is important to understand the effects they have on radio astronomy. In this work, we undertake a multi-frequency, multi-epoch survey with two SKA-Low station prototypes located at the SKA-Low site, to identify and characterise radio frequency emission from orbiting objects and consider their impact on radio astronomy observations. We identified 152 unique satellites across multiple passes in low and medium Earth orbits from 1.6 million full-sky images across 13 selected $\approx 1$ MHz frequency bands in the SKA-Low frequency range, acquired over almost 20 days of data collection. Our algorithms significantly reduce the rate of satellite misidentification, compared to previous work, validated through simulations to be $<1\%$. Notably, multiple satellites were detected transmitting unintended electromagnetic radiation, as well as several decommissioned satellites likely transmitting when the Sun illuminates their solar panels. We test alternative methods of processing data, which will be deployed for a larger, more systematic survey at SKA-Low frequencies in the near future. The current work establishes a baseline for monitoring satellite transmissions, which will be repeated in future years to assess their evolving impact on radio astronomy observations.

Accepted for publication in PASA. 24 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables

References in corpus (7)

• LOFAR: The LOw-Frequency ARray
• The Murchison Widefield Array: the Square Kilometre Array Precursor at low radio frequencies
• Science with ASKAP - the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
• The Murchison Widefield Array: Design Overview
• Unintended electromagnetic radiation from Starlink satellites detected with LOFAR between 110 and 188 MHz
• Establishing the Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array as a Passive Radar for the Surveillance of Space
• The Engineering Development Array 2: design, performance and lessons from an SKA-Low prototype station

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Growing Impact of Unintended Starlink Broadband Emission on Radio Astronomy in the SKA-Low Frequency Range
• Near-field imaging of local interference in radio interferometric data: Impact on the redshifted 21 cm power spectrum
• Broadband Polarized Radio Emission Detected from Starlink Satellites Below 100 MHz with NenuFAR
• 50-250 MHz Pulsar Census with an SKA-Low prototype station: Spectra and Polarization
• SNIFFLES I: Intended Emission, Unwanted Emission, and Unintended Radiation from Low-Earth Orbiting Satellites Impacting Radio Astronomy from 1-26 GHz