Observations of the large-scale infrared emission from the galactic plane region by the diffuse infrared background experiment

The Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) on board NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite has surveyed the entire sky in 10 broad photometric bands covering the wavelength region from 1 to 240 micrometers , at an angular resolution of 0.7 degree(s) (Boggess et al. 1992). the extensive spectral coverage of the DIRBE observations offers an unprecedented opportunity to undertake comprehensive large-scale studies of the content, structure, and energetics of the stellar and interstellar components of the Galaxy. Understanding the Galactic emission is not only a task of scientific value in its own right, but also a necessary step in the accurate extraction of faint cosmological emission from the DIRBE data.