Radio-frequencies represent scarce and key resources used by meteorological communities to measure and collect the observation data upon which analyses and predictions, including warnings, are based or processed and to disseminate this information to governments, policy makers, disaster management organisations, commercial interests and the general public.

On a more general basis, the utmost importance of radio-frequencies for all Earth Observation activities, e.g. GMES, is also to be stressed, in particular with regard to the global warming and climate change activities.

The corresponding systems and applications require reliable access to radio-frequencies ranging from few kHz to several hundred GHz and make use of a large variety of radio technologies such as radiocommunication (e.g. for radiosondes or satellites), radars (precipitation and windprofilers) and radio-based detection (e.g. passive satellite remote sensing or lightning detection).

It should be understood that these radio-frequency applications are inter-related and help to comprise a global meteorological system and that the lack of any of this system’s radio components, whether related to observation or to data dissemination, can put the whole meteorological process at risk.

Even though satellite passive remote sensing is the most sensitive application due to measurements being performed at very low power levels and a limited choice of possible frequencies, other meteorological systems such as meteorological radars or radiosondes are also susceptible to interference and can be perturbed by different radio sources.

The development of new, mass-market and added-value radio applications, supported by powerful lobbies, is putting increasing pressure on the frequency bands used for meteorological purposes. The sharing of the spectrum with other radio applications is a potential source of difficulties which hence requires 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 EUMETFREQ Programme is handled within the EUMETNET Secretariat. The Programme Manager is Mr Philippe Tristant.