Speakers
Ashley VanderLey, Senior Advisor for Facilities, Division of Astronomical Sciences, U.S. National Science Foundation
Bio. Dr. Ashley (Zauderer) VanderLey is Senior Advisor for Facilities in the Division of Astronomical Sciences, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). An employee of NSF since 2017, Dr. VanderLey supports facilities across the Division including radio, optical and infrared telescopes. She also supports facilities by representing the scientific interests for the protection and use of the electromagnetic spectrum both within the United States and internationally, including the impact of optical reflections from satellites on ground-based facilities. She serves as U.S. Head of Delegation on behalf of the State Department to the Radio Astronomy Working Party (7D) of the International Telecommunication Union. Dr. VanderLey completed her bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from Agnes Scott College and her master's and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she was a Research Fellow and an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Berger Time Domain Group at Harvard University. Dr. VanderLey’s research specialization is observational radio astronomy, including techniques for atmospheric correction and the study of explosive astrophysical transients including supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and tidal disruption events of stars around supermassive black holes. Dr. VanderLey has also worked in private philanthropy, leading the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Department at the John Templeton Foundation between 2014 and 2017. She currently serves as a Trustee-at-large for the American Astronomical Society.
Talk: Spectrum Innovation: Research and Development to Catalyze Spectrum Sharing via Active/Passive Coexistence
Abstract: Since 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has significantly increased its investments to catalyze spectrum sharing between active and passive services. In many ways, NSF is a microcosm of stakeholders in the larger economy, with widely varying interests across its Directorates for example, between Engineering, Computer Science, Geosciences and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. NSF investments include the Foundation-wide Spectrum Innovation Initiative program and targeted research and development funding opportunities. For decades, NSF has managed the National Radio Quiet Zone; much of the coordination there continues to work well, but changes may be necessary with the current and anticipated changes in active wireless usage, especially from airborne transmitters like the new large satellite constellations. This changing landscape has led to the establishment of NSF’s National Radio Dynamic Zone program, with a goal of facilitating dynamic spectrum sharing over faster time scales. In this talk, we will describe NSF’s efforts domestically and internationally and reflect on the connection between them.
Balthasar Indermuehle, Principal Scientist at CSIRO, Australia
Bio: Dr Balthasar Indermuehle is a radio astronomer with the CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. He has been engaged in spectrum management since 2018 and is currently vice-chair of ITU-R Working Party 7D (Radio Astronomy), representing radio astronomy throughout all national, regional, and international fora, helping ensure acceptable compromises are found between spectrum use and radio quietness at radio astronomical observatories on Earth and as far away as the Shielded Zone of the Moon.
Talk: Spectrum Sharing in Australia
Abstract: The unprecedented proliferation of satellites in low earth orbit arguably is the most game changing development radio astronomy must contend with going into the future. The truly global coverage of these satellite systems means we can no longer escape radio frequency interference by building our telescopes at remote locations. Adding to this, our telescopes are now looking down the proverbial barrel of the interference, rather than receiving it through the much less sensitive antenna sidelobes, as would be the case for terrestrial transmitters. It is thus not surprising that spectrum sharing is a new concept in Australia that has not yet gained any form of regulatory recognition. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) manages radio spectrum allocations and radio astronomy coordination zones through special Radiocommunications Assignment and Licensing Instructions (RALIs). Coordination between active and passive users of the radio spectrum has been the main driver for these RALIs, with radio astronomy being the predominant driving force. This presentation will take you on a journey into the the world's remotest radio quiet zone deep in the Australian outback, and will provide you with an overview of existing protections, before exploring the challenges terrestrial radio astronomy is facing going into the future, in particular from satellite radio emissions, both intentional and unintended. We conclude by looking at coordination efforts currently under way with satellite operators, paving the way to coexistence and potential methods and technologies that will facilitate spectrum sharing in the future.