Performance characterization of the SMAP RFI mitigation algorithm using direct-sampled SMAPVEX 2012 data

In recent years passive microwave measurements made by space-borne and air-borne missions have been corrupted by man-made Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) sources. Measurements from satellite missions such as SMOS and Aquarius show that even the protected 21cm hydrogen line is affected by RFI (Balling et al., TGRS 2010). The following talk will focus on the digital RFI mitigation algorithm implemented on the SMAP Radiometer Digital Electronics (RDE) subsystem and its performance with respect to real RFI data. This data at passive microwave L-band frequencies was obtained from flights over Denver during Summer 2012 using a direct sampling digital backend behind the Passive/Active L/S Band (PALS) system.