Remote Sensing and Proposed Federal Spectrum Actions: Will Microwave Remote Sensing Be Affected?

Remote sensing obtains space-based measurements of the RF spectrum that are vitally important for weather forecasting. Will the sensors collecting this data be impacted by current or proposed plans to allow terrestrial broadband wireless to share frequencies above 24 GHz? While the potential of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) mitigation techniques applied to microwave space-based observations continues to improve, these techniques can never replace the full value of uncontaminated spectrum for remote sensing and Earth observation applications. As a result, careful consideration of the impact to remote sensing from utilization of millimeter-wave spectrum supporting a wide variety of proposed and developing applications is of critical importance for preserving current weather forecasting capability. Both US and international proposals for "5G" will be examined in the context of remote sensing in the Earth Exploration Satellite Service as used by many non-GEO and science satellites.