After setting up the Radio JOVE receiver and the antenna system successfully [hopefully at a radio-quiet location where it is relatively free of radio frequency interference (RFI)], you're now ready to make radio observations and take data. We must recognize, however, that neither the antenna nor the radio receiver system has the capability to distinguish whether the detected signals are coming from Jupiter, the Sun, the Galactic radio background, radio stations, or your neighbor's lawnmower, TV, microwave oven or heat pump.

The raw data consists of signals from your intended source (e.g., Jupiter), noise from all unintended sources or an overall background, and instrumental artifacts, if any. The steps or procedures by which various techniques, processes, or algorithms are applied to the raw data in order to remove or suppress noise or extract signals from the raw data are collectively called data processing, or more correctly, data reduction.

On this page, we list and describe various data reduction techniques with which raw Radio JOVE data may need to be processed so that physically meaningful measurements can be extracted for analysis.

RJ'er Dave Typinsky describes how to to make a quiet day curve in this article.