Using NASA’s SMAP satellite to detect L-band interference

by Nuke’s So here’s the deal: I didn’t expect NASA’s SMAP satellite — built to measure soil moisture — to end up doing open-source ELINT. But it is. And it’s wild. Between January and early May 2025, I started pulling SMAP’s public L1B brightness temperature data and noticed something weird. Some areas were screaming hot in the 1.4 GHz band — way too hot to be natural. That frequency’s supposed to be quiet. It’s a protected slice of the spectrum. Nobody’s allowed to transmit there. So when the brightness temperature spikes past 360K, something’s up. Usually something military. I mapped it. 🛰️ Detected: Unauthorized Emissions Each red blob is a spot where SMAP picked up strong radio frequency interference — most likely jamming, spoofing, or some kind of high-power EW emission. It’s not random. It lines up almost perfectly with: Russian EW sites Ukrainian drone corridors Front-line staging areas and a couple interesting outliers in the rear What Is SMAP Actually Doing? Norma ... Read full article.