A measurement of the medium-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation

Observations from the first flight of the Medium Scale Anisotropy Measurement (MSAM) are analyzed to place limits on Gaussian fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). This instrument chops a 30′ beam in a three-position pattern with a throw of ±40′; the resulting data is analyzed in statistically independent single- and double-difference data sets. We observe in four spectral channels at 5.6, 9.0, 16.5, and 22.5 cm^-1, allowing the separation of interstellar dust emission from CMBR fluctuations. The dust component is correlated with the IRAS 100 μm map. The CMBR component has two regions where the signature of an unresolved source is seen. Rejecting these two source regions, we obtain a detection of fluctuations which match CMBR in our spectral bands of 0.6 × 10^-5 < ΔT/T < 2.2 × 10^-5 (90% CL interval) for total rms Gaussian fluctuations with correlation angle 0°.5, using the single-difference demodulation. For the double difference demodulation, the result is 1.1 × 10^-5 < ΔT/T < 3.1 × 3.3 × 10^-5 (90% CL interval) at a correlation angle of 0°.3.