Satellite tracking of water vapor, critical for accurate forecasts, may be foiled by cellphone tower transmissions. Federal agencies are competing with one another over radio waves used to help predict changes in the climate as the sky is increasingly cluttered with noise from billions of smartphones.

On one side are NOAA and NASA. They have developed space satellites that passively capture and decode the faint energy signals given off by changes in water vapor, temperatures, rain and wind that determine future weather patterns.

Article Link – 5G Wireless Could Interfere with Weather Forecasts – Scientific American

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify three key takeaways from the article. What did you find most interesting?
2. Do you think 5G will interfere with data collection of atmospheric data? Why or why not?
3. What can be done to minimize the impact of 5G on weather forecasting?

Source: John Fialka Reardon, “www.scientificamerican.com.”, August 3, 2021.