Definition
Galactic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation whose sources lie primarily within our galaxy.
Cosmic background. Radiation associated with the origin of the universe (“big bang”).
Introduction
Stars and other celestial objects outside our solar system contribute radiation that can be important for Earth remote sensing. In many directions, this radiation is small. In fact, for many applications the “heavens” are used as a cold reference source (“cold sky”). However, this radiation can also be strong enough to require compensation as an unwanted background signal. For example, this is the case in remote sensing of ocean salinity which is done at 1.4 GHz in the window set aside for radio astronomy applications. This background radiation can impact remote sensing of the Earth either as radiation directly to the sensor or as downwelling radiation that is reflected from the Earth surface to the sensor, and taking it into account can be complex because there are many sources of this...
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Le Vine, D.M. (2014). Radiation, Galactic, and Cosmic Background. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_139
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