One year of RFI detection and quantification with L1a signals provided by SMOS reference radiometers

The SMOS mission is a European Space Agency project aimed at global monitoring of surface Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity from radiometric L-band observations. This work is concerned with the contamination of the data collected by SMOS by radio frequency interferences (RFI) which degrade the performance of the mission. RFI events are evidenced on both reference radiometers measurements and interferometric ones. It is explained why well-known standard RFI detection methods cannot be used. A specific method for the SMOS mission is presented and illustrated with data acquired with the reference radiometers during the first year of the mission. The aim of this method is not to localize nor to quantify the RFI sources but only to detect, to quantify and possibly to mitigate the corresponding RFI effects in the signals measured by the three reference radiometers.