A study of radio frequency interference in the space-to-Earth exploration allocation at L-band

We report on ongoing studies of the anthropogenic radio frequency interference (RFI) in the L-band allocation for space-to-Earth exploration. The studies are being conducted for the radar instrument on the proposed Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission. A review of the allocated emitters is presented, followed by analysis based on space-borne and airborne data collected from the PALSAR sensor and the UAVSAR sensor. We use these data to model the pulsed RFI environment for SMAP and to demonstrate that the baseline plans for RFI mitigation are technically sound.