Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

background noise
the noise that typically affects a system but is produced independent of the system. This noise is typically due to thermal effects in materials, interpreted as the random motion of electrons, and the intensity depends on the temperature of the material. In radio channels, background noise is typically due to radiation that is inherent to the
universe and due mainly to radiation from astronomical bodies. There is a fundamental lower bound on the intensity of such noise which is solely dependent on the universe and independent of antenna and receiver design.

See thermal noise
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