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The Australian and Western Australian Governments established a radio quiet zone to protect
the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, which is the location of
ASKAP and the MWA, and will host the SKA-Low telescope.
A radio quiet zone is an area where signal levels from radiocommunications equipment
(like television transmitters, mobile phones and CB radios) and electrical devices
are controlled to limit interference to radio telescopes.
The Observatory routinely monitors the radio-frequency environment to ensure there are no
sources of interference. This monitoring revealed a short lived burst of
Radio Frequency Interference around 2pm local time (06 UTC) on January 20th, as illustrated above.
The burst lasted about 10 minutes, and was strongest around 100 MHz, but extended above
1 GHz. Concerns that this may have been caused by activity on-site were alleviated
when it was realised this was associated with a solar flare,
detected by satellites
monitoring ths sun!
(Image credit: Tom Cox)
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