Influence of Natural Noise upon Antenna System Performance

The purpose of the paper is to examine the effects of natural radio noise upon the performance of ground antenna systems. The first part of the paper describes the spatial and spectral properties of the major sources of radio noise, and presents the results of a comprehensive program of machine computation of antenna temperature. In the second part of the paper, these results and those of a recently completed noise measurement program are used to evaluate the carrier-to-noise ratio at a ground receiving antenna which is tracking a space probe.