Whenever a new technology emerges, it generates suspicions, when not fear. Platon himself distrusted writing because he considered that it destroyed thought and weakened memory.
When it arose On the railroad, members of the Lyon Academy of Medicine wondered “if it is worth risking to get on a train and suffer damage to the retina and breathing problems due to high speed, since pregnant women could suffer abortions unintentional due to the shocks ".Well, today it is up to 5G technology to which it is noted in the US as a possible danger to the reliability of weather forecasts.
Discarded their effects on health, the new 5G networks now face another almost worse fear: can annoy us summer holidays in Benidorm. At least that is what is suggested in an article published in the journal Nature that warns of the danger that the spectrum dedicated in the US to 5G communications may interfere with that of meteorological satellites.
"This is a global problem," he says.Jordan Gerth, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.This is because, although the article refers to the US, because this is one of the most important telecommunications markets, the decisions taken by your government could influence global policies on how to regulate this new technology.
And it is that the US government has started auctioning wireless radio frequency blocks that will be used for the next generation 5G mobile communications network .But some of these frequencies are They are close to those used by satellites for crucial Earth observations, and meteorologists are concerned that 5G transmissions from mobile phones and other equipment may interfere with their data that are the basis of their weather forecasts.
Among these frequencies is 23.8 GHz.Satellites record the energy radiated by the Earth at this frequency to assess the humidity in the atmosphere and that data is used by meteorologists to predict how storms will develop and other weather events.And here fears arise: a 5G station that transmits at almost the same frequency will produce a signal that looks very much like water vapor. «We would not know that signal is not completely natural, ”says Gerth.I saw that, the forecasts would be less accurate if meteorologists incorporated such erroneous data into their models.
Don't panic, let's book hotel
Alarmed by the physical integrity of the newscast's meteorologists , we asked one of the great Spanish network experts, Manuel Sanchez Malagon, Network Planning Director at Orange Espana.
Start your explanation with a reassuring introduction."The magic of telecommunications is precisely in to be able to radiate different information at the same time at different frequencies and not interfere with each other. The The clearest example is the radio dial: You move the dial and when you are between two frequencies of two adjacent stations, you hear noise, and as you approach one or the other, you listen more clearly because the interference is eliminated.
Using electronic circuits you can create filters that let information that travels on one frequency pass through and eliminate information that travels on different frequencies, "he says.
defense radars
"When a National Frequency Allocation Table (CNAF is the acronym) is defined by the Ministry responsible for the Radioelectric Spectrum-anade-precisely guard bands are provided, that is, spaces that they allow each owner to filter and not interfere with each other ».Sanchez Malagon gives two cases as an example:
The first is known: the radars that the The Ministry of Defense has in Spain radiating in a piece of the 3.5 GHz band. The band ranges from 3.4 GHz to 3.8 GHz.Defense occupies the following pieces: 3.48 to 3.50 GHz and 3.58 to 3.60 GHz, in total if you add up to 40 MHz (1 GHz is 1000 MHz, and 1 Hz is a wave that gives one cycle per second).The power with which the radars radiate makes, If you use your band, interference does not allow you to provide telecommunications service.
But in reality the frequencies assigned to the operators do not match those assigned to Defense, and in fact, the radars themselves radiate in the band 3,485-3,495 GHz and 3,585-3,595 GHz, leaving 5 MHz of guard left and right precisely to avoid interference.
guard bands and water molecules
The second example explained by Manuel Sanchez Malagon refers to the US case. Indeed, some satellites operate in the 22-23 GHz band because it is precisely at this frequency that the molecule "resonates" of water, and allows to detect concentrations of water vapor and predict the weather with complicated mathematical models.
The bands that today are "blessed" worldwide for 5G are those of 3.5 GHz (actually called that, but occupies a band of 3.4 to 3.8 GHz), the 700 MHz band (which will be tendered in Spain in 1H20) and 26-28 GHz (which will be tendered in Spain in the coming years).
"In the US, they occupy the band 24-26 GHz, which is closer to that used by atmospheric satellites, but I doubt very much that there will be interference because there are serious studies that plan the use of frequencies and the guard bands (separation) that should be left between them, "he says, reassuring.
In short, the expert believes that this alert is a way to draw attention to a non-existent risk, but that will force the American administration to check if the defined guard bands are sufficient to guarantee that both services, that of meteorological satellites and that of telecommunications, coexist without interference.
In short, in the US and here we can continue to rely, more or less, on the weather forecasts of the news to plan our vacation.
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