Orbital jamming

Definition
Orbital jamming interferes with the signal that is transmitted by a ground station towards a satellite.

Overview
"The jammer does not necessarily need to be in the vicinity of the transmitter, but could be located anywhere within the receiving beam of the satellite. (For certain types of satellite, this could be anywhere within the area on the Earth that the satellite covers &mdash; its 'footprint'.) The jamming signal degrades the quality of the wanted signal received at the satellite. For 'bent pipe' satellites this results in the jamming signal being transmitted together with the wanted signal to overwhelm the terrestrial receivers, while for regenerative satellites the jamming signal could result in failure of the satellite receiver to function correctly. The geographic extent of orbital jamming activity is not restricted to the physical location of the jammer, but instead affects the entire geographical region in which the satellite is intended to offer service."