National and global meteorological requirements for spectrum Dr Sue Barrell Assistant Director (Observations and Engineering) Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Bureau of Meteorology The overall mission of the Bureau is to observe and understand Australian weather and climate and provide meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic services in support of Australia’s national needs and international obligations. Mandate and authority derives from Meteorology Act 1955 Funded through Government appropriation Public good The Bureau is an Executive Agency within the Environment and Heritage Portfolio

The role of the Bureau Basic Objectives of the Bureau:  Climate record – meet the need for reliable climate data  Scientific understanding – advance the science of meteorology and develop an understanding of Australia’s weather and climate  Community welfare – contribute to: reduction of the social and economic impact of natural disasters safety of life and property national security economic development and prosperity of primary, secondary and tertiary industry community health, recreation, and quality of life  International cooperation – advance Australia’s interests in and through international meteorology

The Bureau’s services to the community Disaster mitigation (severe storms, tropical cyclones, fire weather, etc) Water resource monitoring/prediction Drought assessment Climate monitoring Forecasts Public weather (for the media, and website) Marine (incl Navy) weather, seas state, etc Aviation and Defence weather

Components of the Bureau’s Observation System

Spectrum usage by the Bureau of Meteorology Observing Systems  Passive Systems  Active Systems  Downlink frequencies for dissemination of satellite data  Meteorological aids: about 900 radiosonde stations worldwide in the 400 MHz band  Ground-based systems observing in the high frequencies (IR, Visible, UV)

Passive satellite systems detect radiation emitted by molecules in the earth & atmosphere Smoke - large part. Cloud Hot Area Smoke - small part. Fire Shadow Grass Lake Soil AVIRIS Image

Snow Low Clouds Cirrus Passive satellite systems combinations of bands are used for retrieving information from radiation emitted by the earth and atmosphere For example: snow, low-cloud, high-cloud discrimination using 4 separate frequencies in the microwave spectrum

Passive satellite systems used for deep convection analysis using microwave and IR frequencies TemperatureHeight H 2 O Vapor Tropopause Troposphere Stratosphere T 11 < T 6.7  (T T 11 ) > 0 Deep convection presents many hazards to aviation (e.g., turbulence, lightning, large hail, icing).

Spectrum usage by the Bureau of Meteorology Observing Systems  Passive Systems  Active Systems Weather radars & vertical wind profilers Space-based sensors such as altimeters eg. JASON, QUIKSCAT  Downlink frequencies for dissemination of satellite data  Meteorological aids: about 900 radiosonde stations worldwide in the 400 MHz band  Ground-based systems observing in the high frequencies (IR, Visible, UV)

Active Systems - Weather radar Tropical Cyclone Monica 24 April 2006 (Cat. 5) Plan and vertical scans, clearly locating eye structure and rain bands C Band Radar, Gove

Spectrum usage by the Bureau of Meteorology Observing Systems  Passive Systems  Active Systems  Downlink frequencies for dissemination of satellite data In exchange we provide satellite-positioning services from the Bureau’s earth-stations  Meteorological aids: about 900 radiosonde stations worldwide in the 400 MHz band  Ground-based systems observing in the high frequencies (IR, Visible, UV)

Constellation of Meteorological Satellites FY-2A (CHINA) 86.5°E GOES-10 (USA) 135°W GOES-12 (USA) 75°W METEOSAT-9 (EUMETSAT) 0° METEOSAT-7 (EUMETSAT) 57.5°E METEOSAT-6 (EUMETSAT) 63°E GOMS (RUSSIA) 76°E INSAT 2-E (INDIA) 83°E FY-1D (CHINA) NOAA- 12,14,15,16,17,18 (USA) METEOR-3M-N1 (RUSSIA) KALPANA-1 (INDIA) 74°E METEOSAT-8 (EUMETSAT) 3.4°W METOP-A (EUMETSAT) FY-2C (CHINA) 105°E GOES-9 (USA) 200°W GOES-11 (USA) 105°W FY-2B (CHINA) 123.5°E INSAT 3-A (INDIA) 93.5°E INSAT 2-B (INDIA) 111.5°E INSAT 3-C (INDIA) 74°E MTSAT-1R (JAPAN) 140°E INSAT 2-C (INDIA) 48°E

Frequency bands Passive sensing Active sensing Australian Bureau of Meteorology – 2006 spectrum use GHz 100 – 853 Space - based atmospheric chemistry, water vapour, temperature GHz 50 – 60 Space - based atmospheric oxygen for temperature profiling GHz 36 – 37 Space - based rain / snow precipitation cloud liquid water / vapour ocean wind & ice soil moisture GHz 31 – 32 Space - based window channels related to temperature measurement GHz 24 Space - based atmospheric water vapour cloud liquid water GHz 19 Space - based sea-state and ocean ice rain / snow water vapour GHz 11 Space - based rain / snow / ice soil moisture sea-state / ocean wind ocean surface temperature GHz 1.4 Space - based vegetation index soil moisture & salinity sea-state / ocean wind ocean surface temperature GHz 9.3 – 9.5 Surface - based Weather Watch & Wind – find RADAR X - band GHz 5.6 – 5.65 Surface - based Weather Watch & Wind - find RADAR C - band GHz 2.7 – 2.9 Surface - based Weather Watch & Wind - find RADAR S - band GHz Space – based Cloud profiling GHz Space - based Wind, ice, geoid, vegetation, snow, rain, altimetry GHz 5.15 – 5.46 Space - based Geology Sea – ice Oceanography Land – use Interferometry GHz 0.42 – 0.47 Space - based Forestry monitoring ( biomass ) MHz 1680 Surface - based Radiosonde ( balloon ) MHz – 403 Surface - based Radiosonde ( balloon ) MHz 1280 Surface - based Wind Profiler ( Troposphere – Stratosphere ) MHz 50 Surface - based Wind Profiler ( Troposphere – Stratosphere )

Downlink frequencies Australian Bureau of Meteorology – 2006 spectrum use MHz , , Polar-orbiting satellite FY1 MHz , 137.5, , Polar-orbiting satellite NOAA MHz Geostationary satellite MTSAT-1R MHz Geostationary satellite FY2 MHz 1691 Geostationary satellite (low resolution data) MHz , 1698, , , 1707 Polar-orbiting satellite (high resolution data) GHz , 1.698, , , Polar-orbiting satellite NOAA (Davis) MHz 1684 TARS (receive) MHz 1690 TARS (receive) MHz TARS (transmit) MHz TARS (transmit) Transmit and receive frequencies GHz 4.04 and 8 (X-band) future meteorological data dissemination services MHz 2-20 Marine HF (Voice and fax)

HF Marine Broadcast System Bureau of Meteorology Coastal Seas Forecast and High Seas Bulletin Broadcast by voice and facsimile from two sites, Willuna and Charleville Information to be broadcast is relayed by data link from Melbourne Head Office

Spectrum usage by the Bureau of Meteorology Observing Systems  Passive Systems  Active Systems  Downlink frequencies for dissemination of satellite data  Meteorological aids: 38 radiosonde stations across Australia (and its territories) in the 400 MHz band (1680MHz in reserve)  Ground-based systems observing in the high frequencies (IR, Visible, UV)

Spectrum usage by the Bureau of Meteorology Observing Systems  Passive Systems  Active Systems  Downlink frequencies for dissemination of satellite data  Meteorological aids: about 900 radiosonde stations worldwide in the 400 MHz band  Numerous and varied ground- and space-based systems observing in the high frequency bands (IR, Visible, UV)  Space-based systems dependent on radio frequency downlink for direct readout and timely data processing and assimilation

The Bureau’s services to the community ECMWF experiment shows the impact of removing 3 AMSU-A instruments Impact of satellite data on forecasts Another ECMWF experiment showed the impact of removing various observing systems from forecast analysis. Removing satellite data (purple line) has the largest impact on the forecast analysis.

 Tropical cyclones cloud imagery, rainfall rate, sea surface winds – TRMM, Meghatropiques (2009) and GPM constellation (2013) – Aqua, Terra – ERS-2, QuikScat, Metop/ASCAT – DMSP/SSMI – GOES, Meteosat, MTSAT Weather forecasting in support of flood prediction cloud imagery and rainfall rate – TRMM, Meghatropiques (2009) and GPM constellation (2013) – all Operational met. satellites –Aqua –Terra Drought and risk of wildfires soil moisture, vegetation index weather forecasting – Spot, Landsat – all Operational met. satellites –Aqua –Terra Vegetation anomaly over Africa, MODIS/Terra Satellite Systems support Disaster Warning

 Wildfires, volcanic eruptions Visible and IR high resolution imagery Oil spills SAR Imagery – NOAA-Metop (AVHRR), Aqua-Terra (MODIS), SPOT, Landsat – MSG (SEVIRI),GOES, MTSAT Esperanza Fires, Landsat – NOAA-Metop (AVHRR), Aqua-Terra (MODIS, ASTER), SPOT, Landsat – MSG (SEVIRI),GOES, MTSAT – RadarSat, ENVISAT (ASAR) Floods in India, Terra, MODIS Tsunami Ocean topography Hot spots in Guinea, 2004, SEVIRI on Meteosat-8 Dust storms multispectral VIS/IR imagery Meteosat, MTSAT, GOES Dust storm over Africa, 3 March 2004, Meteosat-8, SEVIRI Floods Visible and IR high resolution imagery Disaster Detection and Monitoring

The Bureau’s services to the community Sydney, Hunter and Northern Regions Hail Storm 3 December 2001 $30M estimated damages

The Bureau’s services to the community Satellite data was used to position the eye of the cyclone to an accuracy of 30km, 2 days before it made landfall Tropical Cyclone Larry 20 March 2006 MTSAT-1R image of TC Larry TRMM (microwave) image of TC Larry Weather radar data tracked the movement of the storm and was used to provide forecasts and warnings Reached category 5 No lives were lost Total estimated damages: $360M Willis Island Radar

Australian Water Availability Project Partnership of Bureau of Rural Sciences, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology Funded by National Heritage Trust, in support of the National Water Initiative Establish monitoring and prediction of soil moisture and water balance components (rainfall, evaporation, transpiration, runoff) to:  Underpin sustainable & productive natural resource management and farm profitability  Support implementation of federal Exceptional Circumstances (drought relief) policy  Manage impact of drought on urban and rural water supplies Real-time (in situ and space-based) data drives a water balance model:  Meteorological data Precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind  Satellite-derived data Solar radiation Vegetation greenness Land surface temperature Vegetation Greenness Solar Radiation

Flexibility in the choice of frequencies used by the Bureau of Meteorology Spectrum usage Flexibili ty Passive remote sensingNone There are no alternative regions of the spectrum to measure radiation emitted by molecules in the earth & atmosphere Weather radars & wind profilers Little Can tune operating frequencies of modern equipt, but must remain within band. Frequency tuneability is limited by band plan agreements with other users. Older units can be untunable Downlink frequenciesNone Determined by international satellite operators (Australia has no satellites) Surface-based (point to multipoint) communications High Determined by equipment and stakeholders Location of earth stationsLittle Some flexibility to locate earth stations away from capital cities, but at very high cost (security, communications, maintenance). As a public good organisation, the Bureau cannot pass on costs.

Meteorological data – cost to the Bureau Free international exchange of meteorological data  WMO Resolution 40: “.. provide on a free and unrestricted basis essential data and products which are necessary for the provision of services in support of the protection of life and property and the well-being of all nations, particularly those basic data and products, … required to describe and forecast accurately weather and climate, and support WMO Programmes;..” Extensive Australian use of foreign satellite data, freely provided in exchange for protection of satellite interests Failure to cooperate puts access to this free data at risk

Value of meteorological services In the UK, the value to community today is 1.5 Billion pounds p/a oExpect higher for Australia (UK 2x population, 2x GDP, 0.05x area of Australia) All data consistently point to the value of all Australian meteorological services being $2-3 Billion per annum Benefit to cost ratio of meteorological services: Basic public weather services for householders (forecasts and warnings)4:1 Terminal aerodrome forecasts service for international flights to Sydney airport2.7:1 Public weather and climate services for mining firms in Queensland17:1 Tropical cyclone warning service for homeowners in QLD :1

Impact of compromised access to key spectrum bands Disaster mitigation services affected Quality of forecasts diminished – lives at risk Increased costs resulting from weather-related disasters  Cost of all weather-related damage (severe wx, drought, flood, etc) in 2005: $276 billion. (UN expects a peak year of $1.3 Trillion USD before 2040.)  Australian GDP ~2% of global GDP, suggests peak Australian annual loss of as much as $30 Billion before  Assume 10% of damage is “avoidable”, then up to $3 Billion per annum value of meteorological services in Australia.  Foregone economic benefit of extended period forecasts

Summary Bureau of Meteorology delivers high value services to the community  Critical to the safety of life and the protection of property Services depend on robust and effective observing systems and communications  Largely dependent on unhindered access to radiofrequency spectrum  A mix of frequencies and systems are essential to service continuity and quality Timely & reliable access to satellite data essential to data assimilation  Early detection and warning to maximise preparedness and response to severe weather and natural disasters Future service improvements, such as extended period forecasts, depend on access to new satellite observations via X band reception

Thank you