The Relikt Experiment

Prognoz 9, launched on 1 July 1983 into a high-apogee (700,000 km) orbit, included the Relikt-1 experiment to investigate the anisotropy of the CMB at 37 GHz, using a Dicke-type modulation radiometer. During 1983 and 1984 some 15 million individual measurements were made (with 10% near the galactic plane providing some 5000 measurements per point). The entire sky was observed in 6 months. The angular resolution was 5.5 degrees, with a temperature resolution of 0.6 mK. The galactic microwave flux was measured and the CMB dipole observed. A quadrupole moment was found between 17 and 95 microkelvin rms, with 90% confidence level. A map of most of the sky at 37 GHz is available.

References:

• I.A. Strukov, A.A. Brukhanov, D.P. Skulachev and M.V. Sazhin. Pis'ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal v.18 (1992), 387 (in Russian, English version: Soviet Astronomy Letters 18 (1992), 153).
• I.A. Strukov, A.A. Brukhanov, D.P. Skulachev and M.V. Sazhin. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 258 (1992), 37p.