(Yahoo) – Satellites tracking water vapor in 2012 helped scientists accurately predict Superstorm Sandy’s frightening turn toward New York and New Jersey where it killed dozens of people and inflicted billions of dollars in damage. But now scientists are warning that their precision tracking of hurricanes could be disrupted by signals from the new generation of wireless networks known as 5G that will soon roll out
across the U.S. In one test that mimicked interference, Sandy was incorrectly forecast to head out to sea. At currently proposed 5G power levels, satellites may have trouble reading natural signals given off by water vapor. That could set back forecast accuracy to levels last seen around 1980, said Neil Jacobs, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “This would result in the reduction of hurricane track forecast lead time by roughly two to three days,” Jacobs told Congress at a hearing earlier this month. The issue has split the Trump administration, with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency includes NOAA, warning that critical Earth-science data could be lost. READ MORE
