EUMETFREQ

Radio-frequencies represent scarce and key resources for meteorological communities to either collect the observation data upon which its predictions are based or process and disseminate weather information and warnings to the public.

These applications are spread over the whole spectrum from few kHz to several hundred GHz and make use of a large variety of radio technologies among which telecommunication (e.g. for radiosondes or satellites), radars (precipitation and windprofilers) and teledetection (e.g. passive satellite remote sensing or lightning detection). Even though satellite passive remote sensing is the most sensitive application since the choice of possible frequencies is dictated by the laws of physics and measurements are performed at very low power levels, other meteorological systems such as meteorological radars or radiosondes are also susceptible to interference and can be perturbed by different radio sources. Acknowledging the increasing pressure of active services, mainly telecommunications, represented by a number of powerful lobbies, on the frequency bands used by the meteorological community, sharing of the spectrum with other activities is a source of difficulties which require constant attention from the users.

The EUMETNET members have therefore decided to coordinate their activities in favour of the protection of the radio-frequencies they use collectively, encompassing participation and contribution to the multiple international bodies in charge of frequency management in order to defend the views of the meteorological community.

The Responsible Member is Météo-France and the Programme Manager is Philippe TRISTANT.

More details can be found by going to EUMETFREQ

Updated : 19 June 2008