| https://eos.org/opinions/wireless-frequency-sharing-may-impede-weather-satellite-signals I saw it shared several places around the Twittersphere in the last couple days snippets: Verizon Wireless created its popular television ads from years ago to highlight the commercial value and public interest in wireless voice and data access across the United States. Today, as the number of wireless users across the nation and their appetites for more and faster data continue to grow, government initiatives that wireless service providers support are pushing to open more radio frequencies to commercial wireless services. The timing could not be worse. Petitions now in front of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urge sharing a portion of the radio-frequency spectrum that is reserved for federal use, particularly for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) geostationary satellites. The requests would allow new wireless users into the lowest quarter of the allocated band that spans from 1,675 to 1,695 megahertz (MHz). The advanced NOAA satellites, each designed to last 10 years in a mission expected to span most of the next 2 decades, enhance a long-standing method of delivering weather data. The satellites wireless broadcasts to receiving antennas include remote surface and flood gauge observations in addition to imagery essential to meteorologists, scientists, and emergency managers. NOAA satellites provide data needed by researchers investigating extreme weather and other natural hazards and retransmit government weather forecasts and bulletins. Adding new users to the band used by satellites would likely interrupt timely communication of weather and other environmental information essential for effective responses to hazardous and extreme weather, flooding, fires, and other dangers. In other words, such disruptions could decrease the accuracy and precision of weather forecasts and warnings, impeding the work of disaster responders and putting lives at risk. |