ODS: A self-reporting system for radio telescopes to coexist with adaptive satellite constellations

TL;DR

This paper introduces ODS, a self-reporting system enabling radio telescopes and satellite operators to coordinate and reduce radio frequency interference, thereby protecting astronomical observations amid increasing LEO satellite deployments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel self-reporting system, ODS, and a Telescope Boresight Avoidance technique to mitigate satellite RFI in radio astronomy, with successful preliminary experiments.

Findings

Effective reduction of RFI in VLA observations

Successful implementation of ODS in collaboration with SpaceX Starlink

Potential for broader adoption by RA facilities and satellite operators

Abstract

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations bring broadband internet and cellular service to the most remote locations on the planet. Unfortunately, many of these locations also host some of the world's best optical and radio astronomy (RA) observatories. With the number of LEO satellites expected to increase by an order of magnitude in the upcoming decade, satellite downlink radio frequency interference (RFI) is a growing concern in protected radio-quiet areas like the United States National Radio Quiet Zone. When these satellites transmit in the spectrum near protected RA bands, undesired out-of-band emission can leak into these protected bands and impact scientific observations. In this paper, we present a self-reporting system - Operational Data Sharing (ODS) - which enables mutual awareness by publishing radio telescopes' operational information to a protected database that is available to satellite operators through a representational state transfer application programming interface (REST API). Satellite operators can use the ODS data to adapt their downlink tasking algorithms in real time to avoid overwhelming sensitive RA facilities, particularly, through the novel Telescope Boresight Avoidance (TBA) technique. Preliminary results from recent experiments between the NRAO and the SpaceX Starlink teams demonstrate the effectiveness of the ODS and TBA in reducing downlink RFI in the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array's observations in the 1990-1995 MHz and 10.7-12.7 GHz bands. This automated ODS system is beginning to be implemented by other RA facilities and could be utilized by other satellite operators in the near future.