CURRENT THREATS TO PASSIVE MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING AND THE ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE ON RADIO FREQUENCIES (CORF)

Passive microwave remote sensing of the Earth is facing a number of current and future threats. They come from planned uses of the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum by telecommunication and other services that, if approved by national and international regulatory commissions on frequency allocation, will greatly increase the possibility of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) affecting bands that are critical for the remote sensing of the Earth surface and of its atmosphere. CORF is a body of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences able to file position statements with regulatory agencies. Thse filings are often successful in gaining some adjustments to reduce the potential for RFI in frequency bands critical for microwave Earth remote sensing. In this paper we discuss some of the present threats to passive microwave remote sensing of the Earth and how CORF is filing position statements to protect the use of these frequencies for Earth remote sensing and also for the operation of radio telescopes.