Radio spectrum monitoring at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen

The published data sets are derived from radio spectrum measurements at GFZ’s Satellite Receiving Station at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen (station described in Falck et al., 2020). The engaged radio spectrum monitoring system was designed and installed by GFZ to support analysis, assessments and discussions on local usage of radio systems, radio interference issues and radio silence at Ny-Ålesund. Radio silence is an important topic (https://nyalesundresearch.no/research-and-monitoring/researchers-guide/using-radio-frequences/), in order to support and protect the operation of sensible instruments, especially the antennas at the local VLBI station (Very Long Baseline Interferometry). Transmissions at frequencies between 2 and 32 GHz are generally prohibited by Norwegian regulations in a 20 km radius around Ny-Ålesund (with exemptions for safety-relevant applications). This includes all kinds of Wifi/WLAN- and Bluetooth transmissions (2.4 GHz and 5.7 GHz band), both, from consumer electronics and scientific instruments.

GFZ’s radio spectrum measurements started mid of September 2023 (commissioning phase) and entered full functionality on 11. October 2023. The monitoring system includes an easy-to-handle, graphical user interface (https://rsm.gfz.de, online since 1.October 2024) to display graphics from the measurement data, as processed by GFZ. Also, daily plots and raw data are available from the website for user-selectable days and antennas. We recommend to visit the website to become acquainted with the published data. This publication covers raw data (numerical, full resolution) and data processed by GFZ (graphical, lower resolution). The main components of the measurement system, the measurement procedures and the file structures of the published data are described in separate documents.