Meteorologists Worry 5G Expansion Could Interfere With Weather Forecasts

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

U.S.
Meteorologists Worry 5G Expansion Could Interfere With Weather Forecasts
As FCC seeks more radio frequencies to support new technology, some worry signals could bleed into satellite readings used to predict hurricanes

By Drew FitzGerald
May 14, 2019 12:06 p.m. ET

The Trump Administration’s swift-moving plan to promote 5G networks is running into resistance from the weather-forecasting community.

The dispute centers around ultrahigh radio frequencies that the Federal Communications Commission recently auctioned off for use in the country’s next-generation wireless networks. Officials at other agencies, including the Department of Commerce and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, warn that those airwaves—specifically those above 24 gigahertz—could scramble nearby readings...

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FCC pushes 5G network expansion into new radio frequencies; forecasters worry new technology will bleed over into satellite readings used to predict hurricanes

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Meteorologists fret about 5G signals clouding their forecasts:

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[spin]

1. How would we know the weather forecasts are less accurate?

It is not like they are all that great today.

Perhaps the meteorologists are looking for a good excuse for when they screw up.

[BadgerKid]

6. And your suggestion for improvement is?

[spin]

11. I remember back to the days when the first satellites were launched. ...

I read a prediction that once we had weather satellites in orbit we would be able to accurately predict the weather for at least a month in advance.

Obviously weather is far more complicated than was understood at that time and I doubt that we fully grasp weather science today.

Still the satellites did help and so did super computers. Better satellites and faster computers may still help but our knowledge of the factors that can influence weather might be the most important item.

[Skittles]

13. ridiculous

Last edited Mon May 20, 2019, 01:50 AM - Edit history (1)

"YOU go up against Mother Nature......see how YOU do."

[spin]

14. I agree that it is hard to predict Mother Naure. ...

It is going to be a while before we become good at it.

[briv1016]

2. Hey, the meteorologists could've bid for that spectrum and they didn't.

So who's really at fault?

[oldsoftie]

3. I've been seeing a few stories about this next generation not being great for EVERYTHING.

Google it, its out there. How much is accurate, i dont know

[bsiebs]

5. Russians are pushing the 5G scare stories

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/science/5g-phone-safety-health-russia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[gay texan]

9. True

The interference issue is quite real.

[gay texan]

4. This is why it's a bad idea to auction of radio spectrum

In this administration the FCC is in bed with the big businesses. Frequencies above 20 Ghz are used for short range high detail radar, along with satellite communications. These spectrum allocations have been in place for decades.

Essentially, the Republican FCC sold off a bunch of frequencies to the telecommunications industry so their buddies could make even more money at the expense of the saftey of the common folk.

[yaesu]

7. the extremely wide spread spectrum signals play havoc with other signals on the same band

not sure what the wattage will be, it may work out.

[gay texan]

8. Judging by your screen name

I have a fairly good idea what one of your hobbies is

[yaesu]

10. Thank you

too

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. 5G Networks Could Throw Weather Forecasting Into Chaos

Hat tip, the head of a listserv for scanner listeners in the DC area.

ERIC NIILER
SCIENCE
05.17.19 07:00 AM
5G NETWORKS COULD THROW WEATHER FORECASTING INTO CHAOS

IF YOU HAD a choice between a better, faster cell phone signal and an accurate weather forecast, which would you pick? That’s the question facing federal officials as they decide whether to auction off more of the wireless spectrum or heed meteorologists who say that such a move could throw US weather forecasting into chaos.

On Capitol Hill Thursday, NOAA’s acting chief, Neil Jacobs, said that interference from 5G wireless phones could reduce the accuracy of forecasts by 30 percent. That's equivalent, he said, to the quality of weather predictions four decades ago. “If you look back in time to see when our forecast scale was roughly 30 percent less than today, it was 1980,” Jacobs told the House Subcommittee on the Environment.

That reduction would give coastal residents two or three fewer days to prepare for a hurricane, and it could lead to incorrect predictions of the storms’ final path to land, Jacobs said. “This is really important,” he told ranking committee member Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma).

In March, the FCC began auctioning off its 24-gigahertz frequency band to wireless carriers, despite the objections of scientists at NOAA, NASA, and the American Meteorological Society. This week, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) wroteto FCC chair Ajit Pai requesting the commission stop companies from using the 24-GHz band until a solution is found, and to delay any more of the auction.

Jordan Gerth, a research meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been studying this issue as part of a group at the American Meteorological Society. He says that while the FCC can switch which regions of the spectrum it allocates to phone companies, forecasters are stuck. That’s because water vapor emits a faint signal in the atmosphere at a frequency (23.8 GHz) that is extremely close to the one sold for next-generation 5G wireless communications (24 GHz). Satellites like NOAA's GOES-R and the European MetOp monitor this frequency to collect data that is fed into prediction models for upcoming storms and weather systems.
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[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. Weather forecast accuracy is at risk from 5G wireless technology, key lawmaker warns FCC

This is back in the news again.

NEW: Weather forecast accuracy is at risk from 5G wireless technology, key lawmaker warns FCC, seeking documents

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