A Poor's Man Approach to Solar Radio Emission Characterization

The Sun (both the photosphere and the corona) is a strong source of radiation across the entire RF spectrum. Under some particular circumstances, Sun noise may heavily interfere with ground receivers for communication satellites or deep space probes, causing degradation, or even destruction, of the useful signal. An accurate characterization of the solar noise is therefore of great importance, especially in the design of satellite broadcasting systems or deep space missions. In this paper we experimentally investigate the transit of the Sun behind a broadcasting satellite by resorting to a commercial-grade receiving equipment for satellite TV and we numerically assess the amount of radiated noise. Experimental results are eventually validated by a comparison with data collected by NASA’s deep-space missions.