Multifrequency observations of blazars. I - The shape of the 1 micron to 2 millimeter continuum

Near-simultaneous measurements in 11 wavebands between 1 micron and 2 mm of a sample of 13 'blazars' are presented. These measurements represent the first comprehensive attempt to determine the infrared-to-millimeter-wave properties of this class of object, which emit the bulk of their luminosity in the far-infrared region. Most of the sources have very flat millimeter/submillimeter spectra up to the highest observed frequency. However, 3C 279 and 3C 446 show evidence of turnovers in their submillimeter spectra. The 1-4 micron spectra can be characterized by simple power laws, all steeper than -0.9; several sources, however, show evidence of spectral beaks in the 10-20 micron region, suggestive of energy losses. It is shown that the spectral properties are consistent with synchrotron emission from relativistic jets aligned close to the line of sight and the observations are discussed in relation to such models.