Antenna aperture

An antenna aperture describes the collecting area associated with a receiving antenna. The antenna effective area need not equal its geometric projected area.

The antenna effective area converts incident energy flux into available received power for a specified direction and matched polarization of an electromagnetic wave. In a lossless free-space link, a transmitter of antenna gain $G$ at range $r$ and a receiver of effective area $A_{\mathrm{eff}}$ have $P_r/P_t=G{A}_{\mathrm{eff}}/(4\pi r^2)$. Impedance or polarization mismatch reduces the delivered power.