Broadband Noise

From Unofficial BOINC Wiki

[edit] General

Undesired signals that covers a large portion of the spectrum of interest. The irony is that one person's signal is another's noise. In general and practical terms, the party next door is making "noise" if you were not invited and you are trying to go to sleep. If you had been invited, well, then it is no longer noise.

In the cases of programs like SETI@Home any signal that is created by mankind (and woman kind, though they generally are more quiet and therefore less of a problem), satellites, the sun, etc.; or to be even more general, in our local solar system is "noise" and contaminates our data and generally ruins it (drat!).