The proliferation of low-earth-orbit satellites over the last decade has significantly increased the risk of radio frequency interference with ground-based radio astronomy experiments. Unintentional, narrow-band emission at protected frequency bands, as well as broadband emission from such satellites have been conclusively detected by radio experiments like LOFAR, NenuFAR and SKA.
Experiments targeting the radio detection of neutrinos — such as RNO-G and IceCube-Gen2 — may be similarly affected with different consequences. Unintentional radio signals, both narrowband and broadband, may cause false-positive triggers or saturate the trigger system such that real neutrino signals are not sampled. In the worst case, this would lead to a reduced neutrino-search sensitivity.
Thus far, no systematic study has addressed this risk in the context of radio-neutrino detection. This contribution outlines the first steps in such an analysis using data from RNO-G, and initial findings from a study of interference from Starlink satellites are presented.