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What's the frequency: a radiosonde courtesy of global meteorological & telecommunication orgs
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Hamburg, Germany is celebrating the first-ever Global Climate Week starting today. Hamburg’s Global Climate Week is running under the UN slogan “Seal the Deal!” The organizer of the event, Professor em. Hartmut Graßl, Head of the Board of ALDEBARAN Marine Research & Broadcast, said, “We have to get the message across to the public, the private sector and to policy-makers that we are unlikely to get a second chance to begin delivering a low carbon, sustainable 21st century development path.”
In efforts to encourage governments to agree to a fair, balanced and effective climate agreement, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are providing their support to the Seal the Deal campaign. For over 135 years, ITU and WMO have collaborated in a partnership.
The first joint seminar on the use of radio spectrum for meteorology, aimed at weather, water and climate monitoring and prediction was held by the WMO and the ITU this week.
According to the WMO, between 1980 and 2005, over 7,000 natural disasters worldwide took the lives of more than 2 million people. 90% of the natural disasters, 72% of casualties, and 75% of economic losses were the result of bad weather, climate and water-related hazards. During that same period of time, the estimated economic shortfall of these natural disasters was $1.2 trillion.
The Secretary General of the WMO stressed the importance of keeping frequency bands that are used for radio-based information and communication technologies free from interference. ITU is responsible for allowing interference-free operations of radio-based applications and radiocommunication systems used for climate monitoring and prediction, weather forecasting and disaster early warning and detection. The UN’s WMO has a membership of 188 Member States and Territories and provides the vital information for the advance warnings that save lives and reduce damage to property and the environment.
Remote sensors, one of the radio-based information communication technologies that are the main source of observation and information about the Earth’s atmosphere and surface, are important given that in many cases when disaster strikes the wired telecommunication infrastructure is extensively or completely destroyed. The WMO’s requirements for radio-frequency bands as observation tools, such as radiosondes, weather and wind profile radars, microwave sounders and space-borne infrared have helped the ITU’s efforts in providing the most advanced means to improve the most accurate and optimum delivery of climate information.
The data that is gathered through the WMO and ITU remote sensing can lead to useful studies on the role of climate change on various human developments. One example is the beneficial application of climate change results to crop models to study the potential impact that climate change will have on farmers and provide an opportunity to mitigate the problem by offering farmers scientific advice on crop management to adapt to the climate changes that are being scientifically observed. CROPGRO is one simulation generator that has been used to create models for future planning of crops in the case of climate change situations. By being able to create climate change scenarios using climate as a variable, future issues that may result from the accumulated results of WMO assessments on climate change issues can be helpful and integrated at the policy-level, by farmers and private agencies for informed decision making.
The ITU has been committed to contributing toward mitigating the effects of climate change by focusing its activities to encourage the use of information communication technologies as a positive force to reduce greenhouse emissions. In 2007, it noted a concern that information communication technologies and the trend toward “always-on” services, like broadband or mobile phones, increases energy consumption compared with fixed-line telephones.
In work with the WMO, it has been coordinating the orbital and frequency resources for satellites, which gather data on climate change, such as GCOS – the global climate observing systems.
Once the data has been gathered by GCOS, the Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC) provides access to the data. If you’re looking for data on atmosphere surface, atmosphere upper-air, atmosphere composition, oceans, terrestrial or space, you’ll find useful facts thanks to GOSIC.
For example, under 'global atmosphere watch', you’ll find the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW). CO2 data has been contributed to the GAW World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) by 44 countries. In November 2008, the latest analysis of the data from the GCOS showed the amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) are higher than those in pre-industrial times (before 1750). In pre-industrial times, carbon dioxide levels were 37% lower than they are now, while methane levels were 156% lower. Nitrous oxide levels at that time were 19% lower. The data analysis also shows that the globally averaged mixing ratios of CO2, CH4, and N2O in 2007 were higher. At 383.1 ppm, CO2 was 1.9 ppm higher than in 2006. At 320.9 ppb, N2O was up 0.8 ppb from 2006. At 1789 ppb, CH4 is up 6 ppb since 2006. While methane increased by up to 13 ppb per year during the late 1980s, the growth rate slowed during the past decade, while the 6 ppb rise from 2006 to 2007 is the highest annual increase since 1998.
Radiosondes are instrument packages attached to high-rising balloons that are equipped with sensors that make measurements that are linked to a radio transmitter. The measurements are sent on a radio frequency which are converted into meteorological values, including images. In the 2008 edition of a handbook, Use of Radio Spectrum for Meteorology: Weather, Water and Climate Monitoring and Prediction produced by the WMO and ITU it discusses among other things the frequency of radiosonde flights. According to the handbook, more than 800,000 radiosonde flights occur each year worldwide from roughly 900 upper-air stations, with another 400,000 flights made for other various applications. The handbook also lists which MHz frequency bands that are used for meteorological aids and specifies that the WMO regularly updates a catalogue of radiosonde systems in use within the WMO network in order to keep meteorologists who use the measurements apprised of the type of radiosonde in use. When a radiosonde is launched, the operator chooses a frequency that will function without detriment to the systems already in flight. A change of routine was forced by interference when radiosonde use in band 27.5-28 MHz found that other services were using the same bandwidth.
All the data centres that contributed to the GAW report are listed at http://gaw.kishou.go.jp/wdcgg/
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