Spectrum Management for Science in the 21st Century

Abstract

The U.S. National Research Council’s Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) has just finished overseeing the completion of “Spectrum Management for Science in the 21st Century,” a report aimed at protecting the scientific use of the radio and microwave spectrum. The report attempts to lay the foundation of an effort to identify the needs of radio astronomy and Earth remote sensing, to identify the benefits of these two activities, and to develop the practical, forward-looking approaches to spectrum access that are needed to ensure the necessary conditions for their important observations. The committee focused on three major topics: Earth remote sensing (Chapter 2), radio astronomy (Chapter 3), and interference mitigation and technology (Chapter 4). The committee process included an in-depth study of each of the topics of these chapters, including the current and expected future status of Earth remote sensing and radio astronomy and applicable radio frequency interference mitigation technologies. A series of findings were developed from these chapters, and an associated series of recommendations to help ensure the viability of these scientific endeavors were made. The findings and recommendations are detailed in Chapter 5. The Spectrum Study is available (free of charge for personal use) as a pdf download at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12800 The Executive Summary of the Report is reprinted here, by permission of the US National Academy of Sciences.