Reappraising foreground contamination in the COBE-DMR data

With the advent of all-sky Halpha surveys it is possible to determine a reliable free-free template of the diffuse interstellar medium which can be used in conjunction with the synchrotron and dust templates to correct cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations for diffuse Galactic foregrounds. We have used the COBE-DMR data at 31.5, 53 and 90 GHz and employed cross-correlation techniques to re-evaluate the foreground contributions, particularly that due to dust which is known to be partially correlated with Halpha (and free-free) emission. The DMR microwave maps are found to contain, as well as the expected synchrotron and free-free components, a component tightly correlated to the COBE-DIRBE 140-mum dust map. At 31.5, 53 and 90 GHz this emission is 6.3 +/- 0.6, 2.4 +/- 0.4 and 2.2 +/- 0.4 muK MJy(-1) sr at 140 mum, respectively. When corrected for the contribution from thermal dust, a strong anomalous dust-correlated emission component remains, which is well fitted by a frequency spectrum of the form nu(-beta) where betasimilar to 2.5 in the DMR frequency range; this is the dominant foreground at 31.5 GHz. The result implies the presence of an emission component with a dust-like morphology but a synchrotron-like spectrum. We discuss the possible origins of this component and compare it with the recent WMAP interpretation. The better knowledge of the individual foregrounds provided by the present study enables a larger area of the sky (|b| > 15degrees) to be used to reappraise the CMB quadrupole normalization, Q(rms-PS), and the scalar perturbations spectral index, n. We find Q(rms-PS)= 15.2(-2.3)(+2.8) with a power-law spectral index of n= 1.2 +/- 0.2. These values are consistent with previous COBE-DMR analyses and the WMAP 1-yr analysis.