Infrared Observations of the Ecliptic Poles with COBE/DIRBE

Session 57 -- COBE and Related Papers
Display presentation, Tuesday, 10, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[57.08] Infrared Observations of the Ecliptic Poles with COBE/DIRBE

R.~F.~Silverberg, W.~T.~Reach, M.~G.~Hauser, T.~Kelsall, S.~H.~Moseley (NASA/GSFC), S.~Burdick, T.~Murdock (GRC), H.~T.~Freudenreich (Hughes/STX), B.~A.~Franz, S.~W.~Stemwedel (ARC), G.~N.~Toller, J.~L.~Weiland (GSC), and E.~L.~Wright (UCLA)

We report on temporal brightness variations of the diffuse light from the ecliptic poles. The observations by the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE ) on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE ) are over a 0.7 \deg\ field in 10 bands from 1.25-240 $\mu$m and were obtained over the 10 month cryogenic lifetime. The polar data are well fit by a sinusoidal variation with a one year period. We compare the fits to the expected variation for a tilted zodiacal cloud observed from the Earth's eccentric orbit and to the difference of the North and South ecliptic poles observed by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS ). The nearly continuous observations also allow us to place limits on the changes in the zodiacal signature as the Earth passes through several meteor stream enhancements.

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\noindent \small{The National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) is responsible for the design, development, and operation of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE ). Scientific guidance is provided by the COBE Science Working Group. The COBE program is supported by the Astrophysics Division of NASA's Office of Space Science.}

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