MetService called back to Parliament to 'please explain' 5G issues

Paul Gorman13:42, Jun 30 2019
MetService
The fine weather we've been mostly having continues into the weekend.

Parliamentarians have been reassured by MetService it has a plan to deal with any corruption of crucial weather satellite data by 5G cellphone technology.

The state-owned enterprise fronted up at Thursday's meeting of the economic development, science and innovation select committee after being called back for failing to explain at its February 14 appearance the possible consequences of 5G frequency interference.

Members of the committee had been surprised by a May 6 Stuff article headlined "Forecasters worry thousands at risk from storms due to 5G cellphone network disruption".

Two satellite images - visible on left and infrared on the right - taken at 9am on March 26 this year by the Japanese Himawari satellite. The nor'west arch shows up as green in the infrared image, with heavy rain cloud streaming on to the West Coast.
METSERVICE
Two satellite images - visible on left and infrared on the right - taken at 9am on March 26 this year by the Japanese Himawari satellite. The nor'west arch shows up as green in the infrared image, with heavy rain cloud streaming on to the West Coast.

International scientists are predicting the world's exposure to dangerous weather could increase if the radio frequencies 5G cellphone technology uses corrupts crucial water vapour measurements at different levels of the atmosphere taken by satellites.

READ MORE:
* Forecasters worry thousands at risk from storms due to 5G cellphone network disruption
* Huawei staff left in tears following GCSB decision, boss says
* Weather forecasters challenged by recent bad weather
* Niwa boss tells MPs of 'agitator' trying to get free weather data

Forecasters say any impact on satellite data is worrying and potentially life-threatening, given storms are becoming more intense and frequent as a result of climate change.

Imagery from Nasa's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership weather satellite, taken about midnight, shows Cyclone Olwyn near Australia in March 2015 with a well-formed eye.
Nasa
Imagery from Nasa's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership weather satellite, taken about midnight, shows Cyclone Olwyn near Australia in March 2015 with a well-formed eye.

MetService chief executive Peter Lennox told the committee he had interpreted a question on 5G at the February meeting as about the potential introduction of Huawei 5G equipment and not about the frequency spectrum issue.

The worry was that those frequencies could "leak" into the band between 23.6 and 24.0 gigahertz, a principle source of information on water vapour.

"5G could impact potential MetService products," he said.

MetService chief executive Peter Lennox.
KEVIN STENT/STUFF
MetService chief executive Peter Lennox.

MetService systems engineering manager Bruce Hartley said water-vapour data was critical for the computer models used in climate and weather forecasts and warnings.

Any 5G leakage into that water-vapour wavelengths would be cumulative.

"That is of grave concern to us."

National MP Melissa Lee asked MetService to come back to a select committee to explain the impact 5G cellphone technology may have on weather satellites. (File photo)
ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
National MP Melissa Lee asked MetService to come back to a select committee to explain the impact 5G cellphone technology may have on weather satellites. (File photo)

MetService forecasting research and development manager Iman Soltanzadeh​ told committee members the lack of land masses in the southern hemisphere meant satellite observations were even more crucial for forecasts and warnings in this part of the world.

Lennox said MetService had expressed its preference to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for greater protection of the water-vapour band.

MetService was mitigating 5G's possible effects on data by using a range of global forecasting models, supporting a robust observation network in the southwest Pacific, and by improving its methods of verifying forecast accuracy, he said.

A vigorous low-pressure system that brought south-westerly gales to coastal Canterbury in August 2002 swirls away to the east while snow and hail-bearing clouds clip Banks Peninsula in this photograph taken by the Japanese GMS satellite.
METSERVICE
A vigorous low-pressure system that brought south-westerly gales to coastal Canterbury in August 2002 swirls away to the east while snow and hail-bearing clouds clip Banks Peninsula in this photograph taken by the Japanese GMS satellite.

The committee chairman, National's Jonathan Young, told Lennox the Stuff article "was quite a surprise" and fuller answers at the previous meeting "would have been quite helpful to us".

Committee member and National MP Melissa Lee said she asked for MetService to be called back because of the significance of any interference from a 5G network.

Asked if she was happy with the response, she said: "I guess so. We got the extra information."

The weather sector has been in the news in the past year, particularly over competition issues and publicly accessible data.

In February, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) chief executive John Morgan said when he appeared in Parliament to deliver the Crown research institute's 2017-18 annual review there was a "particular agitator" wanting to have access to more weather data.

He would not name the company, although it is understood he was referring to WeatherWatch – a private forecasting company based in Auckland – when he made that comment to members of the economic development, science and innovation select committee.

Stuff