- In order to make it easier to relate to the many satellite frequency bands that can be employed, labels have been created.
- Wider bandwidths are often available in the higher frequency bands, but they are also more prone to “rain fade,” which degrades signals (the absorption of radio signals by atmospheric rain, snow, or ice).
- Congestion in the lower frequency bands has become a significant problem as a result of the use, number, and size of satellites increasing. To use higher bands, new technologies are being researched.
L-band (1-2 GHz)
- GPS carriers, as well as satellite mobile phones like Iridium; Inmarsat, which offers communications on land, at sea, and in the air; and World Space satellite radio.
S-band (2-4 GHz)
- Weather radar, surface ship radar, and a few communication satellites, including NASA satellites for ISS and Space Shuttle communications. The European Commission granted Inmarsat and Solaris mobile, a partnership between Eutelsat and Astra, each a 215 MHz chunk of the S-band in May 2009.
C-band (4–8 GHz)
- Mostly utilized for raw satellite feeds, satellite communications, and 24/7 satellite TV networks. Since it is less prone to rain fade than the Ku band, it is frequently employed in regions with tropical rain (the original Telstar satellite had a transponder operating in this band, used to relay the first live transatlantic TV signal in 1962).
X-band (8–12 GHz)
- Mainly employed by the armed forces. used in continuous-wave, pulsed, single-polarization, dual-polarization, synthetic aperture radar, and phased-array radar applications. In civil, military, and governmental institutions, X-band radar frequency sub-bands are used for weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic management, defense tracking, and vehicle speed detection for law enforcement purposes.
Ku-band (12–18 GHz)
- Is employed for satellite communications. Ku-band downlink, which operates in Europe between 10.7 GHz and 12.75 GHz, is utilized for direct broadcast satellite services like Astra.
Ka-band (26–40 GHz)
- Military aircraft fitted with high-resolution, close-range targeting radars and uplink in the 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz bands.