IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2013 - 59

Technical committees
William J. Blackwell (Chair), MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Ian S. Adams (Vice-Chair), Naval Research Laboratory

The IEEE GRSS Frequency Allocations in
Remote Sensing (FARS) Technical Committee

Technical Committee Corner
by John Kerekes, Vice President
of Technical Activities
One of the ways GRSS serves its
members is through the organization of technical commit tees
focused on specific areas of interest
within the fields of geoscience and
remote sensing. Currently, GRSS
has five TCs spanning much of
remote sensing technology. Among other activities, these committees organize special sessions at IGARSS, run data analysis
contests, represent the society at international meetings, and
write position papers on technical topics. More information on
these TCs is available from the society's website at http://www.
grss-ieee.org/community/technical-committees/.
Each issue of the GRS Magazine will include this column (continuing a tradition started with the GRSS Newsletter) with a contribution from one of our TCs describing recent activities or
addressing current topics. We are pleased this inaugural issue of
the GRS Magazine contains the following column by Bill Blackwell
and Ian Adams on the Frequency Allocations in Remote Sensing
(FARS) TC.

Introduction
he IEEE GRSS Frequency Allocations in Remote
Sensing (FARS) Technical Committee (hereafter,
"FARS") was created in 2000, and it is charged with
facilitating the GRSS role in the frequency management process by fostering, archiving, and disseminating relevant technical information. FARS also
serves as an interface for GRSS into the regulatory

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2013.2244698
Date of publication: 17 April 2013

march 2013

ieee Geoscience and remote sensing magazine

process by providing information to members and
by organizing member efforts when appropriate. Frequency allocation and interference issues do not fall
within the purview of IEEE Standards, but rather are
matters of regulation by international treaty. Assessments by the FARS Technical Committee thus fill
a critical gap between IEEE Standards and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regulations.
FARS currently has approximately 85 members in ten
countries representing government, industrial, and
academic entities.
Motivation and Objectives
of the FARS Technical Committee
Our capacity to exploit the electromagnetic spectrum
allows us to probe the universe and disseminate information. As these goals are intertwined, so are the
shared resources afforded to each. Careful management of the electromagnetic spectrum results in the
ability to perform precise remote measurements of the
Earth and the cosmos while using the same spectrum
to send high-powered communications transmissions;
however, the potential for measurement contamination still exists.
Due to sharing of allocated bands, limitations
in hardware, and transmissions outside of allocations, remote sensing observations experience
radio-frequency interference (RFI). Corrupted measurements may be difficult to identify, especially at low
levels of interference. As the need for high-precision
measurements expands-principally for ocean and
terrestrial sensing, but also for radio astronomy-
investigators have developed new methods for sharing spectrum and for identifying and mitigating
RFI. For heritage hardware, post-processing software
methods have proven invaluable for identifying radiofrequency interference, with some measured success
in mitigation. For future sensors, digital receivers offer
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http://www http://www.grss-ieee.org/community/technical-committees/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2013