Radio communications to monitor climate hazards

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) are mulling over to use radio frequency for the study and research of meteorology.

Image credits: Google/ Radio frequency to be used for studying meteorology

It would help the meteorological organisations in monitoring and predicting weather, water and climate changes and deviations, if any, in a better and more efficient way.

The ITU and the WMO recently held the first joint seminar on the use of radio spectrum for meteorology at Geneva.

"WMO is pleased to collaborate with ITU in this first-ever joint seminar on the use of radio-based information and communication technologies for weather, water and climate applications," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said.

Both the organisations have also agreed to keep the required frequency bands for climate measurement free from interference by other users.

"Especially in the light of climate change, it is important to warrant that frequency bands required by measuring equipments (such as radars, satellite, and radio sounds) are kept free,” Jarraud added.

At present, radio-based ICT applications such as remote sensors are the main source of observation and information about the Earth's atmosphere and surface which have still some flaws and are not very efficient in weather prediction.

It has been reported that between 1980 and 2005, over 7,000 natural disasters worldwide took the lives of more than 2 million people and produced economic losses estimated at over US $1.2 trillion.

Ninety per cent of these natural disasters, 72% of casualties and 75% of economic losses were caused by weather, climate and water-related hazards, such as droughts, floods, severe storms and tropical cyclones.

Climate change monitoring and disaster prediction mechanisms are therefore increasingly vital for our personal safety and economic well-being.

The seminar shared by the two international bodies had made elaborate discussions on five point agenda, besides other things.

These are the role of information communication technologies (ICTs), particularly radio-based technologies for monitoring climate change; the effective operation of systems and applications for monitoring the environment, prediction and detection of natural disasters initiated by climate change, and mitigation of their negative effects; current status and development of radio-based systems and applications for weather, water and climate monitoring and prediction.