Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/211889

Title

CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey: the Hubble Space Telescope observations, imaging data products, and mosaics

Author(s)

Koekemoer, Anton M.;  Faber, S. M.;  Ferguson, Henry C.;  Grogin, Norman A.;  Kocevski, Dale D.;  Koo, David C.;  Lai, Kamson;  Lotz, Jennifer M.;  Lucas, Ray A.;  McGrath, Elizabeth J.;  Ogaz, Sara;  Rajan, Abhijith;  Riess, Adam G.;  Rodney, Steve A.;  Strolger, Louis;  Casertano, Stefano;  Castellano, Marco;  Dahlen, Tomas;  Dickinson, Mark;  Dolch, Timothy;  Fontana, Adriano;  Giavalisco, Mauro;  Grazian, Andrea;  Guo, Yicheng;  Hathi, Nimish P.;  Huang, Kuang-Han;  van der Wel, Arjen;  Yan, Hao-Jing;  Acquaviva, Viviana;  Alexander, David M.;  Almaini, Omar;  Ashby, Matthew L. N.;  Barden, Marco;  Bell, Eric F.;  Bournaud, Frederic;  Brown, Thomas M.;  Caputi, Karina I.;  Cassata, Paolo;  Challis, Peter J.;  Chary, Ranga-Ram;  Cheung, Edmond;  Cirasuolo, Michele;  Conselice, Christopher J.;  Cooray, Asantha Roshan;  Croton, Darren J.;  Daddi, Emanuele;  Dave, Romeel;  de Mello, Duilia F.;  de Ravel, Loic;  Dekel, Avishai;  Donley, Jennifer L.;  Dunlop, James S.;  Dutton, Aaron A.;  Elbaz, David;  Fazio, Giovanni G.;  Filippenko, Alexei V.;  Finkelstein, Steven L.;  Frazer, Chris;  Gardner, Jonathan P.;  Garnavich, Peter M.;  Gawiser, Eric;  Gruetzbauch, Ruth;  Hartley, Will G.;  Haussler, Boris;  Herrington, Jessica;  Hopkins, Philip F.;  Huang, Jia-Sheng;  Jha, Saurabh W.;  Johnson, Andrew;  Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.;  Khostovan, Ali A.;  Kirshner, Robert P.;  Lani, Caterina;  Lee, Kyoung-Soo;  Li, Weidong;  Madau, Piero;  McCarthy, Patrick J.;  McIntosh, Daniel H.;  McLure, Ross J.;  McPartland, Conor;  Mobasher, Bahram;  Moreira, Heidi;  Mortlock, Alice;  Moustakas, Leonidas A.;  Mozena, Mark;  Nandra, Kirpal;  Newman, Jeffrey A.;  Nielsen, Jennifer L.;  Niemi, Sami;  Noeske, Kai G.;  Papovich, Casey J.;  Pentericci, Laura;  Pope, Alexandra;  Primack, Joel R.;  Ravindranath, Swara;  Reddy, Naveen A.;  Renzini, Alvio;  Rix, Hans-Walter;  Robaina, Aday R.;  Rosario, David J.;  Rosati, Piero;  Salimbeni, Sara;  Scarlata, Claudia;  Siana, Brian;  Simard, Luc;  Smidt, Joseph;  Snyder, Diana;  Somerville, Rachel S.;  Spinrad, Hyron;  Straughn, Amber N.;  Telford, Olivia;  Teplitz, Harry I.;  Trump, Jonathan R.;  Vargas, Carlos;  Villforth, Carolin;  Wagner, Cory R.;  Wandro, Pat;  Wechsler, Risa H.;  Weiner, Benjamin J.;  Wiklind, Tommy;  Wild, Vivienne;  Wilson, Grant;  Wuyts, Stijn;  Yun, Min S.

Abstract

This paper describes the Hubble Space Telescope imaging data products and data reduction procedures for the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). This survey is designed to document the evolution of galaxies and black holes at z 1.5-8, and to study Type Ia supernovae at z > 1.5. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected, each with extensive multi-wavelength observations. The primary CANDELS data consist of imaging obtained in the Wide Field Camera 3 infrared channel (WFC3/IR) and the WFC3 ultraviolet/optical channel, along with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The CANDELS/Deep survey covers ~125 arcmin2 within GOODS-N and GOODS-S, while the remainder consists of the CANDELS/Wide survey, achieving a total of ~800 arcmin2 across GOODS and three additional fields (Extended Groth Strip, COSMOS, and Ultra-Deep Survey). We summarize the observational aspects of the survey as motivated by the scientific goals and present a detailed description of the data reduction procedures and products from the survey. Our data reduction methods utilize the most up-to-date calibration files and image combination procedures. We have paid special attention to correcting a range of instrumental effects, including charge transfer efficiency degradation for ACS, removal of electronic bias-striping present in ACS data after Servicing Mission 4, and persistence effects and other artifacts in WFC3/IR. For each field, we release mosaics for individual epochs and eventual mosaics containing data from all epochs combined, to facilitate photometric variability studies and the deepest possible photometry. A more detailed overview of the science goals and observational design of the survey are presented in a companion paper.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

Source

Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 197, no. 2 (Dec 2011), article no. 36

Publication year

2011

FOR Code(s)

0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences;  0305 Organic Chemistry;  0306 Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)

Keyword(s)

Cosmology observations;  High-redshift galaxies

Publisher

Institute of Physics Publishing

ISSN

0067-0049

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/197/2/36

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The American Astronomical Society does not allow institutions to archive either the accepted manuscript or the published version of the article. However, you can find an earlier version of the full text here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3754

Peer reviewed