RFInject: Injection of Simulated Radio Frequency Interference in Sentinel-1 Level-0 Data

RFInject: Injection of Simulated Radio Frequency Interference in Sentinel-1 Level-0 Data | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article RFInject: Injection of Simulated Radio Frequency Interference in Sentinel-1 Level-0 Data Roberto Del Prete, Nermine Hendy, Nicolas Longèpè, Akram Hourani This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8337726/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) remains a major source of performance degradation in modern Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions, including the Copernicus Sentinel-1 constellation. Despite extensive research on RFI detection and mitigation, progress has been constrained by the lack of standardized, large-scale, and reproducible labelled datasets suitable for training and benchmarking data-driven methods. This work introduces RFInject, the first open framework for controlled injection of narrowband terrestrial interference—such as continuous-wave tones, pulsed radar signals, and frequency-hopping emitters—into clean Sentinel-1 raw bursts. The framework enables systematic generation of large, metadata-rich datasets that combine physical realism with full reproducibility. RFInject employs a parametric signal model that superimposes modulated chirp trains and tone-like components onto authentic radar echoes while preserving the spectral and statistical characteristics of operational systems. This design allows scalable control over waveform diversity, temporal behaviour, spatial extent, and interference power, facilitating reproducible evaluation and training of advanced detection and mitigation pipelines. The dataset covers 145 globally distributed Sentinel-1 Interferometric Wide (IW) products (2019–2025), each decoded at burst level and augmented with 10 independent RFI realizations per burst. To ensure compactness and transparency, the repository preserves both the clean echoes and the complete RFI parameter vectors, enabling on-demand regeneration of contaminated observations. Together, these design choices establish a physically consistent, metadata-rich benchmark for developing, validating, and comparing algorithms in RFI-resilient SAR processing. Electrical Engineering Geographic Information Systems Radio Frequency Interference Synthetic Aperture Radar Signal Processing Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8337726","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":558891812,"identity":"47dfa697-15d7-4304-840a-d9ce3c305e9d","order_by":0,"name":"Roberto Del Prete","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHih9gLkBTPODSQNCWhJAWhgbwEolGyBaJIjXYnAAIo5Ti3l778HHlT9sGPiON7Y9rqj4I2d8vP3hB4aCO3W4tMicOZdseCYhjUHyzMF2wzNnDIzNzpwxlmAweIbTFgmJHDPJhoTDDAY3EtskG9sMErfdyAE6yuAwPi3mP8Fa7j8EavlnUL95/vPHPwhoMWOE2MII1NJgkGAgwWCG3xaec8mSDWlpPJJnEtsNG44ZG844k2NmkWBwGBLY2LSw9x782GBjI8d3/PCxhw01cvL87ccf3/jw5zA/LltgABQ7bAhuAiH1UMBGWMkoGAWjYBSMSAAAZwhX55I4JLAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0810-4050","institution":"European Space Agency","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roberto","middleName":"Del","lastName":"Prete","suffix":""},{"id":558891813,"identity":"e9c2a557-a47e-47c5-abb1-989a3d6ecb8f","order_by":1,"name":"Nermine Hendy","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5123-3507","institution":"Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nermine","middleName":"","lastName":"Hendy","suffix":""},{"id":558897746,"identity":"bf3c81ed-8f9d-48c5-b836-aac5dcddb67c","order_by":2,"name":"Nicolas Longèpè","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"European Space Agency","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nicolas","middleName":"","lastName":"Longèpè","suffix":""},{"id":558897747,"identity":"11aa0f99-ad73-40e6-bf33-5a30fadb6a01","order_by":3,"name":"Akram Hourani","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0652-8626","institution":"Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Akram","middleName":"","lastName":"Hourani","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-11 14:29:47","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8337726/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8337726/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":98427826,"identity":"dce06e2a-1e3a-4f9b-a072-4711f90811f6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-17 16:41:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":4685189,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"RFI.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8337726/v1_covered_93027d34-b4e8-4b5e-a433-850045fe99c5.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eRFInject: Injection of Simulated Radio Frequency Interference in Sentinel-1 Level-0 Data \u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"European Space Agency","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Radio Frequency Interference, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Signal Processing","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8337726/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8337726/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eRadio Frequency Interference (RFI) remains a major source of performance degradation in modern Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions, including the Copernicus Sentinel-1 constellation. Despite extensive research on RFI detection and mitigation, progress has been constrained by the lack of standardized, large-scale, and reproducible labelled datasets suitable for training and benchmarking data-driven methods. This work introduces RFInject, the first open framework for controlled injection of narrowband terrestrial interference—such as continuous-wave tones, pulsed radar signals, and frequency-hopping emitters—into clean Sentinel-1 raw bursts. The framework enables systematic generation of large, metadata-rich datasets that combine physical realism with full reproducibility. RFInject employs a parametric signal model that superimposes modulated chirp trains and tone-like components onto authentic radar echoes while preserving the spectral and statistical characteristics of operational systems. 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