Why is radar hard to detect stealth aircraft while satellite telephones easily capture signals below the thermal noise floor?

Question

Why is radar hard to detect stealth aircraft while satellite telephones easily capture signals below the thermal noise floor?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Low reflective paint on aircraft absorbs an amount of the radiation and the design is usually done to minimise reflection of rays too, so rather than reflecting the rays they scatter when they hit the hull.

Satellites can ‘see’ all of the points of transmission that they are trying to pick up. Sometimes this is outside of their range, but on a good day with the right background material (salt water is a good reflector) they can pick up more than intended.