The Next Hurricane Sandy Might Come Without Warning

The Obama Administration’s plan to share weather satellite frequencies with commercial cellular carriers could severely degrade scientists’ ability to forecast hurricanes and monitor flooding, weather and spectrum, experts say.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed reallocating spectrum used by weather satellites in the 1675-1710 MHz band for commercial use in its 2010 National Broadband plan, a shift widely opposed by weather organizations worldwide. FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration narrowed the portion of the weather spectrum up for grabs to the 1695-1710 MHz band and endorsed sharing that band with commercial users at an August 2012 spectrum planning meeting. John Snow, professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, said this plan could interfere with the reception of data from sounding instruments on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites that measure atmospheric temperatures, cloud cover, moisture and humidity.