Zodiacal Light Data Investigation. Interim Results for the Earthlimb Clutter Experiment

Abstract : Zodiacal light data from the Earth Limb Clutter experiment (ELC) have been analyzed and compared with IRAS observations in order to bring the former into a common calibration framework with COBE and IRAS. There were 9 ELC spectral bands, 2 of which were broad (12 and 26 microns), and 7 of which were narrow (5.6, 9.6, 10.6, 11.5, 12.5, 13.7, 15.2 microns). The ELC data appeared to show considerable spectral structure in the zodiacal light for 9-15 micron regime. The recalibrated ELC data are also important because they contain zodiacal plane crossings at low (190) and high (1670) solar elongations -- regions not accessible to IRAS or COBE. The antisolar crossing is particularly interesting because it is associated with nearly symmetrically placed secondary peaks at + 280 ecliptic latitude. Possible origins for these peaks are discussed.