The department of science, technology innovation has already taken measures to protect South African radio astronomy facilities from terrestrial interference, including declaring the region of the Karoo in the Northern Cape where the South African portion of the Square Kilometre Array SKA is being built as a radio quiet zone where limited radio activity is permitted.
According to Adrian Tiplady, MD for strategy and partnerships at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory Sarao, the regulations were not designed with interference from satellites in mind, so other steps must be taken to protect astronomy in South Africa because, he told TechCentral, it is one of the country's most valuable contributions to the world.
"As the technology of astronomical facilities progresses and scientists begin to push the boundaries of this scientific endeavour, our instruments get more and more sensitive, and we try to identify locations on the surface of the planet that would maximise the scientific return of those facilities," he said. "It just so happens that South Africa exhibits characteristics that support next-generation astronomical facilities."
South Africa's location makes it an important location for the global astronomy community for two reasons.
Strong disruptive signals, which typically occur in a narrow band, have the potential to saturate the sensitive receivers used for astronomy in the same way that too high a volume distorts the sound coming out of a speaker. These type of signals render the spectrum used for astronomy unusable.