  This is a very exciting time for the CMB field. It is widely recognized that
precision measurements of the CMB can provide a definitive test of cosmological
models and determine their parameters accurately. At present observations give
us the first rough results but ongoing experiments promise new and improved
results soon and eventually satellite missions (MAP and COBRAS/SAMBA now named
Planck) are expected to provide the requisite precision measurements. Other
areas such as observations of the spectrum and Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect are
also making significant progress. There has long been anticipation that cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation would provide significant information
about the early Universe due to its early central role and its general lack of
interaction in the later epochs. Though there have been many observations of
the CMB since its discovery by Penzias and Wilson in 1964, the Cosmic
Background Explorer satellite, COBE, provided two watershed observations: (1)
the CMB is extremely well described by a black-body spectrum and (2) the
discovery of a spectrum of CMB anisotropies.

Astrophysics