Submillimeter Wave Noise Interaction with Rainy Atmospheres

The thermal radiation from the atmosphere is an unwanted contribution of noise from the standpoint of communications, whereas it may provide valuable information about various atmospheric parameters from a remote sensing standpoint. The monitoring of this radiation by spaceborn sensors has been done successfully at microwave and infrared wavelengths. The submillimeter region is still essentially untouched and could give further insight into atmospheric parameters although the interaction of these waves and the troposphere is highly complex and not yet completely described. An estimation of the noise levels for rainy atmospheres is a first step in this direction and shows some of the inherent limitations.