The Science Advantage of a Redder Filter for WFIRST

Abstract

WFIRST will be capable of providing Hubble-quality imaging performance over several thousand square degrees of the sky. The wide-area, high spatial resolution survey data from WFIRST will be unsurpassed for many decades into the future. With the current baseline design, the WFIRST filter complement will extend from the bluest wavelength allowed by the optical design to a reddest filter (F184W) that has a red cutoff at 2.0 microns. In this white paper, we outline some of the science advantages for adding a K_s filter with a 2.15 micron central wavelength in order to extend the wavelength coverage for WFIRST as far to the red as the possible given the thermal performance of the observatory and the sensitivity of the detectors.