IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2022 - 278

PERSPECTIVES
LUIS PEDRO, MANUEL SÁ, RUI FERNANDES,
FLÁVIO JORGE , AND SANDRO MENDONÇA
Protection of Earth Observation Satellites
From Radio-Frequency Interference
Policies and practices
C
arrying onboard remote sensing systems, Earth observation
(EO) satellites provide unique global, systematic,
and consistent space-based measurements of
natural and man-made phenomena. Measurements can
be produced on atmospheric, surface, and subsurface
characteristics, properties, and constituents as well as
other indicators and related data, enabling comparisons
in time and across different parts of the globe, including
remote and otherwise inaccessible areas.
The range of applications for those observations
is wide, addressing private endeavors as well as all
sectors of public policy and decision making, with
an obvious key multisectoral direct impact widely
described in the literature [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. In
particular, EO missions providing services based on
remote sensing data become ever more relevant for
global governance, with examples related to pressing
societal challenges going beyond the borders of
individual countries and requiring a global response
to weather and energy forecasting [7], environmental
and climatic monitoring [8], [9], economic security
hazard detection [10], and situational awareness for
heritage conservation [11], [12] and crisis management
(including efforts of a humanitarian nature)
[13], among many others.
EO-driven services, however, may be impaired by
radio-frequency interference (RFI), the mitigation of
which is essential to restore data integrity and the associated
quality of service. Hence, maximizing the return
on investment on deployed spaceborne infrastructure is
contingent of RFI management [14], [15]. Albeit possible
and routinely carried out, RFI mitigation is limited by
the lack of regulatory evidence because RFI cases remain
largely unreported; what is not reported is assumed not
to exist. It is thus important to understand the regulaDigital
Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2022.3221824
Date of current version: 23 January 2023
278
tory outline of RFI and radio protection as well as the
procedures for claiming the second and the methods for
mitigating the first.
In this contribution, the subject of radio protection
is addressed from the perspective of a national administration
responsible for regulating, providing access to,
and supervising RF spectrum resources (hereafter referred
to simply as spectrum) under its jurisdiction and
used by EO missions. The case in point is the experience
of Portugal, given from the perspective of its institutional
framework.
THE MEANING OF BEING
AN ADMINISTRATION
In Portugal, the administration is the Autoridade Nacional
de Comunicações (ANACOM), established in
1989 as the national regulatory authority for communications.
Its scope includes both electronic and postal
communications. Since 2019, it has also served as
the space authority in Portugal. In the area of electronic
communications, ANACOM is responsible
for the management of the numbering resources;
market regulation and surveillance; infrastructure
regulation and supervision; security of communications
and emergency communications; coordination
among civilian, military, and paramilitary uses of radiocommunications;
and ensuring the efficient and
effective management of scarce natural spectrum
resources, which are the essential physical assets enabling
all radiocommunication services, which the
so-called science services are examples of [16]. In this
sense, ANACOM's role and actuation are geared by
principles of independency, including in terms of its
technical capabilities as well as by values of transparency,
equity, and proportionality, ensuring impartiality
and establishing priorities in the spirit of
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Radio Regulations (RRs) [17].
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2022
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IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2022

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