NOTE: This report is not intended to be definitive, rather it covers issues from the seminar of interest for HMEI Members.

The seminar was attended and the report made by the the Executive Secretary, Bruce Sumner and the HMEI Administrator, C. Charstone for HMEI.

The agenda is available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/TEM/WMO_RFC/documents/Provisional_Agenda_04-08.doc. Further information about the seminar is also available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/TEM/WMO_RFC/seminar-itu-wmo.html. The presentations are available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/TEM/WMO_RFC/seminar-itu-wmo.html.

NOTE: This meeting was preceded by a two day meeting of the WMO Steering Group on Radio Frequency Coordination (SG-RFC), on which Ilkka Ikonen is the HMEI representative expert. The official report of the meeting was sent to HMEI by Mr Ikonen; it is available here. The main issue of relevance from that  SG-RF meeting was reported in item 7.2.3 WRC 2012 issues and WMO Position, of the seminar and reported on below. The SG-RF C meeting had as one result a revised list of SG-RF members, associate members and invited members. This list is available here.

1st ITU/WMO Seminar on use of Radio Spectrum for Meteorology: Weather Water and Climate monitoring and prediction

Item 2.2 ITU Radiocommunications Standardisation Activities - Kevin Hughes (ITU-R)
There are seven Study Groups working within ITU-R. The relevant Study Group for Meteorology is: Study Group 7 – Scientific Services (SG 7)

The ITU-R home page has links to all the Study Groups, where the details of the Study Groups are available. Of particular relevance is the link to SG 7. This link is at: www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.asp?category=study-groups&rlink=rsg7&lang=en

Item 2.4 WMO Role and Activities - J-M. Rainer (WMO)
Radiocommunications services for meteorology:

• WMO Congress noted that passive radio bands are unique and deserve protection and requested assistance with this from ITU.
• The CBS/Steering Group on Radio Frequency Coordination was re-established at CBS XIV in March 2009, with Chairman Philip Tristant and Vice Chairman Giles Fournier.
• The Radio Frequency Handbook has recently been revised and reissued after many years of being out of date. The Handbook is available from: http://www.itu.int/publications/publications.aspx?lang=en&media=electronic&parent=R-HDB-45-2008

Item 2.5 Coordination between NMHS’s and National Radiocommunications Regulators - R. Carter (UK) & G. Fournier (Canada)
Two presentations were made on the need for NMHS's to ensure (and the procedures to take to to do this), that the radio spectrum issues of national meteorological services are communicated to the relevant national regulators. This is vital in order that national regulators are able to present meteorological spectrum issues to international ITU meetings.

Item 4.1 Meteorological Satellite (MetSat) Communications - Dave McGinnis (NOAA) & Markus Dreis (EUMETSAT)
This presentation gives an extensive overview of  meteorological satellites, their services and products, and their radio frequency issues. See the presentation here.

It was noted that In 2007 DCP’s sent approximately 400 000 messages per day, with these numbers anticipated to increase significantly in the future. The anticipated increase of DCPs and messages will likely necessitate expanding spectrum usage for future GSO MetSat systems to make use of currently unused parts of the range 401- 403 MHz.

Item 5.1 Meteorological Aids Services (MetAids) (Radiosondes) and other systems - R. P. Leck (N)OAA See presentation here.
This presentation emphasised that availability of both the 400HHz and the 1600MHz bands are required for successful operation of radiosondes now and in the future. The bands also have to remain interference free for accurate data to be received.

The ITU Working Party 7C (WP 7C) is responsible for MetAids. There is a new version of document with interference information is just about to be released. ITU-R RS 1264 is a useful document addressing the sharing of the frequencies with MetAids and MetSat.

Relevant Radiosonde Documents:

• ITU-R RS.1165-2
  Content: Technical characteristics, operational characteristics, and performance criteria for MetAids systems
  Use: Provides technical and operational characteristics to others conducting sharing studies.
• ITU-R RS.1263
  Content: Interference criteria for MetAids systems
  Use: Provides aggregate interference levels for conducting sharing studies
  Currently under revision in ITU-R WP 7C.
• ITU-R RS.1262
  Content: Sharing and coordination criteria (levels applicable to individual interference sources)
  Use: Provides single entry interference levels for conducting sharing studies
  This recommendation is out of date and will be updated upon completion of the ITU-R SA.1263 update.
• ITU-R RS.1264
  Content: Addresses sharing between the mobile-satellite service and MetAids
  Use: Supported the work of the WRCs (WRC-97 through WRC-2003).
• ITU-R RS.1346
  Content: Recommended interference mitigation techniques for medical implant devices operating in the 401-406 MHz band
  Use: Guidance to administrations developing rules for medical implant devices.
• Handbook R-HDB-45-2008-MSW-E
  Content: Use of Radio Spectrum for Meteorology: Weather, Water and Climate Monitoring and Prediction This can be downloaded free from here
  Use:
  “The Handbook provides comprehensive technical and operational information on current observation applications and systems and on the use of radio frequencies by meteorological systems, including meteorological satellites, radiosondes, weather radars, wind profiler radars and spaceborne remote sensing. It is intended for the meteorological (i.e. weather, water and climate) and Radiocommunication communities, including governmental institutions, industry as well as the general public.”

Other ITU Publications noted here can be purchased from the ITU website at: http://www.itu.int/publications/sector.aspx?sector=1&lang=en

• Improvements in sensor performance and accuracy
• Greater tolerance to interference
• Improvements in GPS accuracy and robustness
• Improved data transmission error decoding
• Sensor redundancy
• Updates to ITU-R Documents ITU-R RS.1263 and ITU-R RS.126
• New ITU-R Report on Determining Maximum Radiosonde Interference Levels

5.2 Lightning detection systems - Roger Carter (UKMO)
Global lightning detection systems are under development in several countries. See the presentation here for more information.

Item 6.1.1 Weather Radars - R. P. Leck (NOAA)
The presentation gave an overview of Weather Radars, i.e.: frequency bands, systems, operations, data utilization, impact of interference, as well as giving information on relevant documents and future trends.

The ITU Working Party  5B (WP 5B) is responsible for meteorological radars.

The three different weather radars with three different frequencies were  noted:

• S band band (2700-2900 MHz, peak transmitter power 750kW and 300km range best for severe weather detection
• C- Band 5250-5650 Mhz) Transmitter power 250 kW and 200 km range, for windshear, microbursts, etc.
• X- band 9300-9500 MHz) Transmitter power 100W to 25 kW, 50km range, for TV, research, military.

Definitions Applied To Meteorological Radars

• In the ITU, Meteorological Radars fall under the Radiodetermination Service
• ITU Working Party 5B (WP 5B) is responsible for Meteorological Radars.
• Three allocations exist in the Radio Regulations specifically for meteorological radars
• 2700-2900 MHz- ground based radars
• 5600-5650 MHz- ground based radars
• 9300-9500 MHz- ground based and airborne radars

Looking Forward - System Trends

• Dual Polarization
• Phased array antennas
• Allow other volume scan strategies
• Can periodically return to an area of concern in atmosphere during a volume scan
• Increased automation
• Mode selection
• Severe weather signature detection
• The deployment of X-band gap filler radars where short range (mitigating cone of silence) or high resolution performance is needed.

Future ITU Activities

• Updates to ITU-R Document ITU-R M.1464
• New ITU-R Report on Determining Maximum Interference Levels for Dual-Polarization Radars Operating in the 2700-2900 MHz Band

Item 7.1 Impact of new Radiocommunication technologies: the Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) and Short-Range Devices (SRD), and Short-Range Radar (SRR) in the 24 GHz band  - P. Tristant (SG-RFC Chair)
There were two reports which looked at the emerging technologies which could impact on meteorological radio frequencies. New technologies include ultra wide band (UWB), software radio, and cognitive radio. All these will put pressure on radio spectrum users.

UWB has a potential to cause interference to meteorological services, particularly passive space-based systems and weather radars. ITU-R created a Task Group (TG 1/8) to investigate this issue, and concluded their work with a report of 800 pages in October 2008. This report covers the entire radio community, not just meteorology. Several of its conclusions are relevant to meteorological issues, particularly the impact on weather radars and on passive bands.

There are also many, many short-range devices (SRD) with small bandwidth and low power that have the potential of causing interference to meteorological bands.

The threat from UWB and SRD interference is of particular concern to EESS full passive sensors.

The 24 GHz short-range radar (SRR) band is adjacent to the 23.6-24 GHz water vapour passive band. SRR is used on cars, where up to 10 radars are anticipated to be installed on cars to help avoid collisions. SSR are very low power and individually cause no problems, but aggregating them to all cars leads to a possible major problem to the 24GHz passive band. An investigation has found that, if 0.03% of cars are equipped with such devices, passive sensing at 24GHz will be put at risk. The ITU-R solution is to move SRR to 79GHz after 2013, but the automotive industry say they won’t be ready by then, and want to move from 24GHz to 26 GHz. The issue remains to be resolved.

Item 7.2 World Radiocommunications Conferences - P. Tristant (SG-RFC Chair) , A. Nalbandian,(Chair CPM for WRC-12) and R. Atkinson (Australia)
There were three presentations, by the respective speakers, on: the 2007 WRC decisions and follow up; preparatory processes for WCR 2012; and WCR 2012 issues and the  WMO position.

WRC 2012 will be held in Geneva from 23 January to 18 February 2012. About 3000 delegates will attend.

CPM11 is an important preparatory meeting setting out most of the solutions for the agenda items to be presented at WRC 2012. This meeting will be held in Geneva on 14-25 February 2011, and will base its work on the Final Report of the previous CPM07, the final report of which will be finished in February 2011 for submission to CPM11. There is also the 2012 Radiocommunications Assembly to be held in Geneva the week before WRC 2012, namely 16-20 January 2012.

Roger Atkinson presented the Item 7.2.3 presentation outlining the WMO position on several items for discussion at WRC 2012. Here is the link to presentation 7.2.3.
WRC 2012 has 30 agenda items to discuss, and 8 of these are of direct interest or concern to meteorology, and 4 which may impact on meteorology.

The 8 Agenda Items of Direct Interest to Meteorology are:

• Agenda Item 1.6: Passive services between 275 and 3,000 GHz;
• Agenda Item 1.8: Fixed service between 71 and 238 GHz;
• Agenda Item 1.15: Oceanographic radars in the frequency range 3-50 MHz;
• Agenda Item 1.16: Lightning detection below 20 kHz;
• Agenda Item 1.22: Effect of emissions from short-range devices (SRD);
• Agenda Item 1.24: Extension of the 7,750‑7,850 MHz Metsat band to the band 7,850-7,900 MHz;
• Agenda item 1.25: Mobile Satellite Service;
• Agenda Item 8.1.1: (Issue C) Resolution 673 (WRC-07) on Radiocommunications use for Earth observation applications.

The 4 Agenda Items which may impact on meteorology are:

• Agenda Item 1.3: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS);
• Agenda item 1.5: Electronic News Gathering (ENG);
• Agenda item 1.7: Aeronautical mobile under Resolution 222 (Rev. WRC-2007);
• Agenda Item 8.2: WRC-2015 Agenda.

Each of the Agenda Items are explained in presentation 7.2.3 linked above.

Seminar Conclusions
It was decided that future WMO/ITU seminars should be held regularly. Provisionally they will be held every two years, depending on the work and issues to be covered.

The official Report Summary outlining the conclusions of the seminar will be available here shortly.

Closure of Meeting
The seminar closed at 1.00pm, Friday 18  September.