Radio quiet to enable big science

For years, a huge adventure in science has been quietly taking place in Western Australia. Now a new stage is starting with the construction of an international telescope. This is the story of the site, the telescopes, and the radio quiet measures to protect them.

What is radio astronomy?

Everyone knows stars emit light. Starlight is produced by physical processes, and even at the speed of light, it can take millions or billions of years to reach Earth. Looking at the stars is literally looking back in time.

It’s less well-known that stars give off radio energy, as do other objects in space, such as dust or gas clouds. These radio signals aren’t coded with information like mobile phones or FM radio, so they appear as noise or static. Measuring the frequency and power of this radio noise provides information about the chemistry of celestial objects and their location, size and speed relative to Earth. This measurement is radio astronomy. It complements optical astronomy (and at other wavelengths) to study the structure of the universe, just as X-rays, CT scans and MRI complement each other in a medical assessment.

Radio energy from stars is very faint — it’s produced by atomic and molecular transitions which are individually extraordinarily small, multiplied by the large number of atoms in a star or dust cloud. These signals travel for billions of billions of kilometres, so the energy measured on Earth is many orders of magnitude less than human-made radio signals. Radio astronomy observations therefore require large receiving antennas (or a distributed array), specialised sensitive receivers and long integration times.

The radio frequencies emitted by cosmic objects are fixed by their chemical and/or physical components. For example, neutral hydrogen has a rest frequency of 1420.406 MHz. Due to the expansion of the universe, cosmic objects are not only moving away from Earth, but are moving faster the further away they are. The Doppler shift means the observed frequency is much lower than the rest frequency. Consequently, radio telescopes need to observe over frequency bands allocated to radiocommunication services.

The next generation

Ideally, radio telescopes are built in areas with minimal interference from other radio sources. Those designed in the mid-20th century, such as CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope Murriyang (The Dish) in NSW or Jodrell Bank in Manchester, UK, were built when radio communication was far less ubiquitous. Over time the growth of radio communications, particularly mobile radio devices, has created significant radio frequency interference (RFI) at such sites.

In 1993, the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) established a working group to plan a next-generation radio telescope with 100 times the spatial resolution and 100 times the sensitivity of existing instruments. It was estimated that this would allow observations to the edge of the observable universe and therefore to the first few moments after the Big Bang. The original concept was to have an effective collecting area of about 1 km² and observe from 100 MHz to 25.25 GHz, with different technologies to cover the low, middle and higher frequency ranges.

Among the many considerations about where to build this telescope, a site with significant protection from radio frequency interference was a key requirement. Five countries — Argentina, Australia, China, South Africa and the USA — bid in 2003–04 to host the project. Following evaluation and preliminary RFI measurements, Australia and South Africa were shortlisted. After further studies and measurements, it was decided in 2012 to split the telescope between the two countries. The low-frequency component, SKA-Low, observing at 50–350 MHz with dipole antennas, will be built in Australia. The mid-frequency component, SKA-Mid, covering 350 MHz to 15.4 GHz with parabolic dishes, will be constructed in South Africa. This is now the SKA project, managed by the SKA Observatory.

Image credit: Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

The Australian site

Australia proposed a site on Wajarri Country in Murchison Shire, Western Australia, which has no gazetted towns, is approximately the size of the Netherlands and has a population of around 100 people. The region includes the Pia Wadjarri Aboriginal community, large pastoral stations and mining. As a result of the low population density, there is little radio frequency interference from terrestrial systems. The nearest cell tower and broadcasting site are at Cue, about 150 km away.

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, acquired the lease for Boolardy Station, which has an area of 3467 km², to establish an observatory. Precursor telescopes were constructed to test technology solutions, to demonstrate the benefit of the radio quiet protection, and as world-class instruments in their own right. The observatory currently hosts the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), constructed by Curtin University and international partners and completed in 2013; CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope, completed in 2014; and the ‘Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature’ (EDGES), which started observations in 2015 and is operated by Arizona State University and MIT.

In November 2022, the Murchison observatory was given a dual Wajarri name — Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory — incorporating a Wajarri phrase meaning ‘sharing the sky and stars’.

After years of planning and design work, the commencement of construction for SKA-Low was announced on 5 December 2022; construction is expected to take eight years. SKA-Low will consist of more than 131,000 dipoles deployed in 512 stations, with a dense central core and three spiral arms, with a diameter of about 80 km.

The Australian Radio Quiet Zone Western Australia

Image credit: Chris Brayton, CSIRO.

Early in the planning stages, CSIRO approached the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to seek RFI protection. The ACMA implemented an embargo in 2005 and a policy document, RALI MS 32, in 2007 which defined the Australia Radio Quiet Zone Western Australia (ARQZWA), updated in 2014 with minor technical changes. Key points of this policy were formalised in legislation through a Radio Frequency Band Plan in 2011.

RALI MS 32 stipulates that within 70 km of the centre of the ARQZWA, the ACMA is unlikely to issue any new apparatus licences in the frequency range 70 MHz to 25.25 GHz. Concentric coordination zones start at 70 km and vary in size depending on frequency, with the largest zone having an outer radius of 260 km for the frequency range 70 to 230 MHz, and smaller radii as the frequency increases. Within these zones, applicants for new apparatus licences must consult with CSIRO to show that the RFI from the proposed equipment will meet defined thresholds. Similar requirements apply to transmitters deployed under spectrum licences. Various class licences state that the user must not operate transmitters within the 70 km zone if they interfere with radio astronomy observations.

To minimise interference from incidental emissions, the Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum created ‘Section 19’ zones under the Mining Act (WA) where new mining tenements would not be granted. The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum (now DMIRS) implemented a Radio Telescope Mineral Resource Management Area where mining companies must work with the observatory to ensure that their activities are compatible with radio astronomy.

The Murchison Shire Planning Scheme includes requirements that new developments are evaluated for radio interference potential. And the telescope equipment itself is subject to strict requirements and shielding to avoid causing local interference from incidental emissions.

This unprecedented level of RFI control was a significant factor in Australia’s successful bid to host SKA-Low. It has already led to world-class astronomy results in frequency bands that cannot be used elsewhere in the world, particularly in 700–1000 MHz.

Nerida O’Loughlin, Chair and Agency Head of the ACMA, has said, “As Australia’s spectrum planner, we are proud that our partnership with CSIRO and industry has created the conditions to support the radio astronomy successes at the Murchison observatory.”

Implications of the Radio Quiet Zone

CSIRO seeks to minimise the impact of the ARQZWA on residents and industry while still providing protection for radio astronomy. It must be emphasised that the telescopes are passive receivers and cannot cause interference to other radiocommunication systems.

It is understood that radio communications are essential to safety in such a remote area, and none of the radio quiet measures restrict use in a genuine emergency. While the use of satellite phones is discouraged under class licence conditions, none of the measures affect the coverage of the region by systems like Iridium, Globalstar, Thuraya or Inmarsat. Starlink has chosen not to provide coverage in the 70 km Inner RQZ to avoid having its subscribers create interference to the telescopes, but this limitation is currently being re-evaluated. Some mining activities may be restricted or may need to find alternative technologies, and CSIRO has worked constructively with several companies to find solutions. Similarly, some remote monitoring systems for pastoral stations cannot be used, but CSIRO is available to work on alternatives.

In summary, CSIRO is available to work with the radiocommunications industry and local people to facilitate essential communications while preserving the radio quiet that underpins future science. Please contact the author for further discussions if there are questions or concerns.

*Carol Wilson is a radiocommunications engineer at CSIRO. Her early research was on satellite propagation, and at CSIRO she has led projects on radiowave propagation for Wi-Fi, broadcasting, mobile and point-to-multipoint systems. Since 2015 she has been Chairman of ITU-R Study Group 3 on Radiowave Propagation, developing standard models for use in global spectrum regulations. She is currently part of the observatory Site Entity team, focusing on the prediction and prevention of RFI at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.

Top image credit: CSIRO.