The Spitzer Deep, Wide-field Survey

Creators: Ashby, M. L. N.; Stern, D.; Brodwin, M.; Griffith, R.; Eisenhardt, P.; Kozlowski, S.; Kochanek, C. S.; Bock, J. J.; Borys, C.; Brand, K.; Brown, M. J. I.; Cool, R.; Cooray, A.; Croft, S.; Dey, A.; Eisenstein, D.; Gonzalez, A. H.; Gorjian, V.; Grogin, N. A.; Ivison, R. J.; Jacob, J.; Jannuzi, B. T.; Mainzer, A.; Moustakas, L. A.; Röttgering, H. J. A.; Seymour, N.; Smith, H. A.; Stanford, S. A.; Stauffer, J. R.; Sullivan, I.; van Breugel, W.; Willner, S. P.; Wright, E. L.

Abstract

The Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey (SDWFS) is a four-epoch infrared survey of 10 deg^(2) in the Bootes field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey using the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope. SDWFS, a Spitzer Cycle 4 Legacy project, occupies a unique position in the area-depth survey space defined by other Spitzer surveys. The four epochs that make up SDWFS permit-for the first time-the selection of infrared-variable and high proper motion objects over a wide field on timescales of years. Because of its large survey volume, SDWFS is sensitive to galaxies out to z ~ 3 with relatively little impact from cosmic variance for all but the richest systems. The SDWFS data sets will thus be especially useful for characterizing galaxy evolution beyond z ~ 1.5. This paper explains the SDWFS observing strategy and data processing, presents the SDWFS mosaics and source catalogs, and discusses some early scientific findings. The publicly released, full-depth catalogs contain 6.78, 5.23, 1.20, and 0.96 x 10^(5) distinct sources detected to the average 5 sigma, 4"-diameter, aperture-corrected limits of 19.77, 18.83, 16.50, and 15.82 Vega mag at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 mu m, respectively. The SDWFS number counts and color-color distribution are consistent with other, earlier Spitzer surveys. At the 6 minute integration time of the SDWFS IRAC imaging, > 50% of isolated Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty cm radio sources and > 80% of on-axis XBootes sources are detected out to 8.0 mu m. Finally, we present the four highest proper motion IRAC-selected sources identified from the multi-epoch imaging, two of which are likely field brown dwarfs of mid-T spectral class.

Additional Information

© 2009. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2009 February 3; accepted 2009 June 1; published 2009 July 23. Print publication: Issue 1 (2009 August 10). This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Support for this work was provided by NASA through award number 1314516 issued by JPL/Caltech. This research made use of Montage, funded by the NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative Agreement Number NCC5-626 between NASA and the California Institute of Technology. Montage is maintained by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Support for M.B. was provided by the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors thank Andy Gould, whose suggestions improved the manuscript. Facilities: Spitzer Space Telescope (IRAC)

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