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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2016
This paper reviews the great progress recently made in searches for and the characterization of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. We now have secure detections on some angular scales and improved upper limits on others. As the sensitivity of such searches increases, understanding sources of foreground noise (e.g., Galactic and extragalactic radio emission) becomes more important. Also reviewed are the contributions aperture synthesis (interferometric) observations can make in characterizing cosmic background fluctuations and foreground sources of noise. Some recent results from the Very Large Array at λ = 3.6 cm are given; these set a limit δT/T ≲ 1.4 × 10−5 on fluctuations at θ ~ 80′. Recent work on the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect is summarized.