WFS Overview

Summary

The INT Wide Field Survey (WFS) is using the Wide Field Camera (~0.3 deg² ) on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT). The project was initiated in August 1998 and is expected to have a duration of up to five years. The WFS is an umbrella for competitively judged science programmes which were assessed on the usual criteria plus the wider worth of the data set and the management competence of the proposing teams.

Multicolour data will be obtained over 200+ square degrees to a typical depth of ~25 mag (U through Z). Importantly, the data is publically accessible by the UK and NL communities from day one, with access to the rest of the world after one year. The preliminary processing and calibration (up to object catalogue generation) is the responsibility of the WFS project.

In recent years a number of major survey programmes covering a variety of wavelengths have been initiated. The 2Mass project is covering the entire sky at a resolution of 4 arcsec in the JHK bands (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/) The Sloan Sky Survey (SDSS) (http://www.sdss.org/) will cover significant areas of the Northern Hemisphere. These wide area surveys are having a significant impact, both as target selectors for 8 m class telescopes and for inherent survey science programmes. The aim of the WFS is to provide deeper data than the SDSS, but still cover significant targeted coverage, typically of fields being observed by facilities at other frequencies.

Why one needs a wide field CCD survey

• INT-WFC -- Original Science Case for WFC - April 1991
• RIDOS -- Submission to the JSC - Oct 1997
• SDSS -- Sloan Digital Sky Survey Black Book
• EIS -- ESO Imaging Survey Science Case
• NOAO -- Deep Wide-Field Survey
• NOAO -- Supporting Capabilities for Large Telescopes see Table 2 and Table 3
• CFHT Megacam Science Case
• MPIA(Heidelberg) Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey CADIS

Proposal Material

• Text of the JSC AO - Dec 1997
• See science page for details of submitted proposals in response to AO.

Survey Wavebands and nominal flux limits

The table below shows the survey wavebands and the typical survey detection limits. For more detailed information on the filters see the filters page.

Last modified: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:32:22 GMT