Sample variance of non-Gaussian sky distributions

Non-Gaussian distributions of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies has been proposed to reconcile the discrepancies between different experimental at half-degree scales. Each experiment probes a different part of the sky, furthermore, sky coverage is very small, hence the sample variance of each experiment can be large, especially when the sky signal is non-Gaussian. We model the degree-scale CMB sky as a $\chi_{n}~{2}$ field with $n$-degrees of freedom and show that the sample variance is enhanced over Gaussian distribution by a factor of $ {(n +6)/ n}$. The sample variance for different experiments are calculated, both for Gaussian or non-Gaussian distributions. We will also show that if the distribution is highly non-Gaussian at half-degree scale $(n \ltwid 4)$, then non-Gaussian signatures of the CMB could be detected in the FIRS map, though probably not in the COBE map.