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

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09590


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.

Read this paper on arXiv…

J. Yan, J. Wu, L. Gurvits, et. al.
Tue, 20 Dec 22
49/97

Comments: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy; 22 pages, 11 figures