Welcome to ERS/ENVISAT Symposium

1
The Space Frequency Coordination
Group (SFCG) ESF Workshop Cagliari, 29
October, 2004
2
What is the SFCG

• The SFCG is an informal group federating all the
  main space agencies and related national and
  international organizations.
• Its main objectives are
• To provide working level coordination of
  international RF spectrum usage among the science
  services users.
• To adopt agreements that optimise the use of the
  allocated bands.
• To agree common policies and identify long-term
  targets related to potential changes to the
  international regulations (ITU-R, WRC, Regional
  Groups).
• Note The second part of this presentation will
  concentrate on the last topic only

3
The SFCG scope

• The radio services covered by the SFCG activity
  are
• Space Research (data communications and sensors)
• Space Operations
• Earth Exploration Satellite (data communications
  and sensors)
• Meteorological Satellite
• Inter-Satellite
• It is therefore clear that
• Passive sensing is only one (important) element
  of the SFCG activity
• Passive sensing not from satellite is not within
  the SFCG scope, but the presence as observer of
  an organisation like IUCAF has proven very
  beneficial.

4
SFCG history and membership

• SFCG was founded 24 years ago under ESA and NASA
  initiative. Since then it has regularly met each
  year.
• The 24 SFCG member agencies are ASI (ITA),
  BNSC(UK), CAST(CHI), CMA(CHI), CNES(FRA),
  CONAE(ARG), CSA(CAN), CSIRO(AUS), DLR(GER), ESA,
  EUMETSAT, INPE(BRA), INSA(SPA), ISRO(IND),
  JAXA(JAP), KARI(KOR), NASA(USA), NIVR(NED),
  NOAA(USA), NSA(MAL), NSAU(UKR), NSPO(TW),
  SSC(SWE), RFSA(RUS).
• The Observers are WMO, IUCAF, ITWG, CCSDS,
  ITU-R.
• The Head of the ESA Frequency Management Office
  has the task of permanent SFCG Executive
  Secretary.
• Further information on SFCG can be found at
  http//www.sfcgonline.org/ .

5
SFCG working methods

• The yearly meetings of SFCG are hosted on a
  rotation basis by one of the member agencies and
  have a duration of 7 working days.
• The work is driven by an agenda and a set of
  action items agreed at the previous meeting, but
  the informal nature of the group allows the
  introduction of any new subject of interest.
• As a result of its work, the SFCG develops and
  adopts common resolutions and recommendations to
  be applied within the member agencies. These
  cover a variety of subjects, e.g. spectrum
  masks, deep-space channels plans, inter-agency
  frequency coordination procedures, interference
  criteria, standard transponder turnaround
  frequency ratios, use of specific bands, common
  objectives wrt the next WRC, etc.

6
Some of the SFCG achievements in the passive
sensing area

1. Successful world-wide agreement by the satellite
   passive sensing community on the requirements for
   the revision of passive allocations above 71 GHz
   (WRC-2000). This proved decisive in convincing
   the national delegations that our requirements
   were scientifically and technically sound.
2. Successful world-wide agreement on the
   requirements for the revision of the
   EESS(passive) allocations in the 50-60 GHz range
   (WRC-97). Same considerations as under point 1.
3. Global revision of the satellite passive sensors
   protection criteria, that resulted in the
   revision of the corresponding ITU Recommendations
   in 2002
4. Agreement on the mechanisms to coordinate the
   future cloud radar missions at 94 GHz with the
   radioastronomy operations (SFCG Resolution 24-2)
5. In general SFCG is effective in raising early
   alarm bells when one of the members discovers
   regulatory evolutions that may have impacts on
   the community

7
The SFCG international recognition
Although the SFCG is an informal group, its
positions on regulatory aspects have an impact on
the decision makers. Its Resolution covering the
SFCG position on the various WRC Agenda Items is
widely known and used as a lobbying tool. The
fact of representing a contact point to reach the
whole satellite science service community is seen
as a key element by the regulators. For example
the SFCG, despite being an informal group, has
been tasked by WRC-03 to act as the reference
point for collecting information on the orbital
parameters of future missions flying SAR sensors
in P-band (432-438 MHz). CITEL has recently
expressed interest in having SFCG attending their
meetings as observer.
8
The SFCG limitations

• SFCG is an informal group. As such
• it doesnt have full authority to speak on
  behalf of a community
• it doesnt have staff that could work full time
  also outside the meeting dates and attend
  international meetings representing SFCG.
• Some of the SFCG member agencies are bound to
  policy decisions taken by their national
  regulatory authority and therefore these members
  cannot always support the SFCG positions when
  attending ITU meetings as part of their national
  delegation. The case of UWB at 24 GHz is
  exemplary in this context, with NASA and NOAA not
  being allowed to express their view at ITU level.
• The SFCG and, more in general, the
  representatives of passive services, have not
  been able to be heard at all in some areas (e.g.
  the European Commission, certain regional groups
  like the Arab Group)

9
How can SFCG improve its effectiveness

• Making its voice heard also in those areas not
  reached yet. A wider and targeted dissemination
  of the SFCG outputs could be beneficial.
• It would be important to identify similar groups
  with common interests to exchange information on
  policies. For example we do not know how
  terrestrial passive sensing users are organised.
• The availability of SFCG staff would surely help
  a lot in attending regional meetings, breaking
  into areas where our community is not well known
  and keeping contacts with other groups with
  common interests (e.g CRAF, IUCAF, etc..). But
  this presents economical and organisational
  problems and may result in a less informal
  operating mode. Therefore this may not represent
  a viable way forward.
• This Workshop could represent an opportunity to
  tackle some of these limitations