Goddard radio-frequency explorer Radio frequency Interference real time Display system (GRID)

RFI is an increasingly important factor in the quality performance of radiometer instruments while the quantity of usable microwave measurements is decreasing due to the presence of RFI. Because of the widespread use of wireless communications such as cellphone and satellite TV, the frequencies reserved for the science community are seeing more and more contamination. In particular, no scientific data can be retrieved for the heavily RFI contaminated region. This problem led to the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission implementation of an RFI detection capability on its radiometer digital backend. However, this instrument is limited by the sampling speed and processing resources available. In particular, the digital backend frequency bandwidth is limited to 24MHz. This shows that the spaceflight technology for RFI detection is limited any the higher frequencies for K, Ka band or beyond.

This effort proposes a game-changing, higher frequency RFI detection and mitigation digital backend for microwave radiometers. Prototyping a high frequency RFI detection instrument by combining the GREX system with a new RFI detection algorithm based on information theory and complex-valued signal processing.

For long term, this instrument is going to be proposed as part of a RFI detection instrument for future microwave radiometer missions.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.