Administration's weather satellite plan opposed globally

A host of weather-related groups around the globe strongly oppose the Obama Administration's plans to reallocate spectrum weather satellites use to commercial cellular carriers in support of the National Broadband Plan.

The groups include the World Meteorological Organization, weather agencies in countries such as Canada and Vietnam, state and local agencies, and commercial weather service providers in the United States. WMO said the plan could end up threatening the operation of a global constellation of 20 weather satellites, including four geostationary operational environmental satellites and four polar-orbiting satellites the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates. Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of WMO, a United Nations agency, said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission that a spectrum sharing plan for weather satellites in the United States could influence other countries to try the same thing, which "would put at risk meteorological and hydrological activities worldwide" and jeopardize a global system whose operation costs run between $2 billion and $3 billion annually. "There is no alternative to spectrum for METSAT [meteorological satellite operations], and no alternative frequency band that can provide similar reliable and available service," Jarraud wrote. Weather balloons also rely on the 1675-1710 MHz band, and while NOAA launches only two balloons per day, Jarraud said 100,000 weather balloons are launched around the world each year, carrying radiosondes which collect data necessary to fine tune weather forecasts.