Gaussian noise is noise that has a probability density function (pdf) of the normal distribution (a.k.a. Gaussian distribution). It is most commonly used as additive white noise to yield additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). In science, and especially in physics and telecommunication, noise is fluctuations in and the addition of external factors to the stream of target information (signal) being received at a detector. ... In mathematics, a probability density function (pdf) serves to represent a probability distribution in terms of integrals. ... The normal distribution, also called Gaussian distribution, is an extremely important probability distribution in many fields. ... For other uses of the term white noise, see white noise (disambiguation). ... In communications, the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel model is one in which the only impairment is the linear addition of wideband or white noise with a constant spectral density (expressed as watts per hertz of bandwidth) and a Gaussian distribution of amplitude. ...

Explanation

Gaussian noise is properly defined as noise with a Gaussian amplitude distribution. This says nothing of the correlation of the noise in time or of the spectral density of the noise. Labelling Gaussian noise as 'white' describes the correlation of the noise. It is necessary to use the term "white Gaussian noise" to be correct. Gaussian noise is sometimes misunderstood to be white gaussian noise, but this is not the case. In probability theory and statistics, correlation, also called correlation coefficient, is a numeric measure of the strength of linear relationship between two random variables. ... In applied mathematics and physics, the spectral density is a general concept applied to a signal which may have any physical dimensions or none at all. ...