Where are you on the Spectrum?

The millimeter wave spectrum, that is? On the Ides of March (14 March, to be precise), the FCC initiated a giveaway, er, sale of government spectrum in the 24-30 GHz band that has already raised nearly $1 billion for the Treasury, far greater than the last sale conducted in 2018. The rub this time, is that spectrum being auctioned off is already presently occupied by important earth/atmosphere sensors using that bandwidth to remotely sense properties of the atmosphere to increase scientific understanding of the 4D evolution of these parameters. These are fundamental components of the World Weather Watch, which the US is party to, and contributes a great deal to increased understanding of the structure and evolution of things that cause major problems for citizens of Earth. You know, things like hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding events, winter storm events, and wildfires, dust storms, etc. The Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post has been covering this issue, but there has been little coverage since the first day of the auction concluded.

That is, things that kill people with immediate devastation. They also are important for the environmental and climate monitoring functions for the US, particularly science-based agencies and the government and private sector functions that are impacted by weather and climate. Agencies such as the Department of Defense. Industries such as transportation, infrastructure maintenance, disaster preparedness and recovery, and recreation. The satellites are the sentinels in the sky and we geoscientists rely on their data to augment our understanding and enable us to get some measurements where no surface-based instruments exist (or could be maintained). Like over the nearly 70% of the earth's surface covered by water and also the ice caps, which are poorly observed, otherwise. Environmental change is happening faster than we'd like or have ever observed before, and these expensive instrument platforms could be completely neutered depending on 5G traffic, without interference protection.

The administrators of NOAA, NASA, and legislative committees in the science arena all had asked FCC Chair Ajit Pai to use his authority to not allow such a wide spectrum to be auctioned off, which would put science at risk, or to require a greater sensitivity threshold, but he did not see fit to say no to President Trump's desire to lead the world in 5G. As is so typical of this administration, FCC spokesperson Hart responded to the bipartisan leaders of the House science committee letter of 13 March with a flippant comment about only bringing up concern the day before the auction. Objections have been filed for months, with no one caring to respond to the concerns with anything other than a Nyet!

As pointed out in coverage in Science,

"A joint NASA/NOAA study had suggested that any noise should be limited to –50 decibel watts (dBW); the Europeans, for example, recently defined their noise threshold at –56 dBW. The FCC auction, however, would allow –20 dBW of noise, a significantly higher level, especially given its measure on a logarithmic scale. On 8 March, however, Pai rejected NASA and NOAA’s request and stated his intent to proceed with the auction."

Who cares, after all, if the US weather and climate monitoring agencies lose their ability to collect the data that cost so much to create in the form of new instrument development, launching them into space, and monitoring the health of the satellites that carry them? Anything that appears to boost the economy (and appearances may be deceiving) is full-speed-ahead in the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the lax interference standard is 4,000 times weaker than proposed by European regulators. [Aw, those Europeans!]

My view is that 4D should trump 5G; we need to maintain protection of the 23.4-24 GHz spectrum with a view towards more caution, not less, along the lines of those proposed, at least, by the commissioned NOAA-NASA joint study, at 50 dBW, if not 56 dBW.

From my point of view, by this stubborn action by Chair Pai, you can add the FCC to the EPA and the Department of Interior to agencies who are moving policy against what the science tells us. And that is the wrong direction. Dust off your quills, folks, they are more effective than torches and pitchforks, but it is time to get involved!