WMO/GEO - Radio Frequency Protection

Following on the World Meteorological Congress lead, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Plenary and Ministerial Summit in January (see MeteoWorld Issue 1/2014) highlighted the need to preserve the 5350-5470 MHz frequency range, which is of high importance to the Copernicus Sentinel-series satellites and other Earth observation missions of WMO Members.

Toward that objective, GEO worked in close collaboration with WMO, Brazil, France, the European Space Agency and other partners to prepare for the July meeting of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radiocommunication Joint Task Group. This meeting is a major milestone in preparations for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) where key decisions on radio frequency allocations will be taken.

The GEO contributed to a WMO Position Paper and prepared its own, both of which were submitted to the Joint Task Group meeting. Both positions received strong support, thus there is reason to hope that the regulations governing the use of this radio frequency band will not be modified at WRC-15.

 

Eleventh GEO Plenary
The Eleventh GEO Plenary, held in Geneva from 13 – 14 November, welcomed over 250 representatives of GEO’s 94 Member governments and 77 participating organizations. They reviewed GEO’s progress toward building the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and considered the first draft of the GEO strategic plan for the period 2016 – 2025. More information on the Plenary is available.

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