Polarisation-Inclusive Spiking Neural Networks for Real-Time RFI Detection in Modern Radio Telescopes
Nicholas J. Pritchard, Andreas Wicenec, Richard Dodson, Mohammed Bennamoun
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- github.com/pritchardn/SNN-RFI-SUPEROfficialpytorch★ 1
Abstract
Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is a known growing challenge for radio astronomy, intensified by increasing observatory sensitivity and prevalence of orbital RFI sources. Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) offer a promising solution for real-time RFI detection by exploiting the time-varying nature of radio observation and neuron dynamics together. This work explores the inclusion of polarisation information in SNN-based RFI detection, using simulated data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array (HERA) instrument and provides power usage estimates for deploying SNN-based RFI detection on existing neuromorphic hardware. Preliminary results demonstrate state-of-the-art detection accuracy and highlight possible extensive energy-efficiency gains.