Measurement and Analysis of Impulsive, Transient Sources of Radio Frequency Interference and their Impact on Radio Telescopes

This paper presents the measurement and analysis techniques employed by the SARAO RFI team to detect transient impulsive RFI and quantify its impact on MeerKAT and the future SKA-Mid telescope. Impulsive RFI measurement is discussed, emphasising the importance of analysing the problem in the time domain and its contrast to typical EMC measurements. Tradeoffs of the instrumentation utilised to acquire the required data are outlined. The compliance metric for impulsive RFI primarily relates to the risk of instantaneous saturation of the telescope receiver. Time occupancy statistics and pulse train repetition rate are under investigation and will inform an update to the SKA impulsive RFI specification.