SWIRE Data Atlas - Summary

What is SWIRE

The Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE) is a wide-area, high galactic latitude, imaging survey to trace the evolution of dusty, star-forming galaxies, evolved stellar populations, and active galactic nuclei as a function of environment from redshifts, z ~ 3, when the Universe was about 2 billion years old, to the present time. SWIRE has surveyed roughly 50 square degrees with the MIPS far-infrared camera and the with the IRAC mid-infrared camera. The SWIRE team web pages have extensive project information.


The SWIRE Fields

IRSA Image SWIRE Spitzer and Ancillary data are available here from the Spring 2005 Data Release 2 of Enhanced Products from the Spitzer Science Center (SSC). SWIRE surveyed 50 square degrees distributed over six fields specifically chosen to be the largest contiguous areas on the sky with minimal infrared background. The current data release includes data from all 6 regions on the sky, known as ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-N2, XMM-LSS, the Lockman Hole (LH), ELAIS-S1 and Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). Several of these fields have been the subject of previous surveys, most notably the European Large-Area ISO Survey (ELAIS), which surveyed 12 square degrees of the sky using the ISO instruments CAM and PHOT. There have also been Spitzer Guaranteed Time Observations in the CDFS and Lockman Hole regions. The SWIRE survey area generally contains these previous surveys within it's boundaries, users should consult the SWIRE team web pages and the data delivery document (pdf) for further explanation.

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Instruments and wavelengths of observations

The SWIRE Spitzer data include IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 µm) and MIPS (24, 70 and 160 µm), and optical Ancillary for selected regions. This optical data in most cases is u, b, r, i, z data and originates either from the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in La Palma, taken in conjunction with the ELAIS survey, or from new data originating primarily at KPNO and CTIO.

Image data are currently available here for the SWIRE ELAIS-EN1, ELAIS-EN2, Lockman Hole (LH) and XMM fields. IRAC 3-color JPEG previews of each field can be found here (and within the search results): EN1, EN2, Lockman, XMM, ES1 and CDFS

Ancillary image and catalog data are also available from Infrared Space Observatory's (ISO) ISOCAM observations in the Lockman Hole I & II (ADS links: ISOCAM observations in the Lockman Hole - I (Shallow) Survey and ISOCAM observations in the Lockman Hole - II (Deep) Survey. The Lockman Hole Shallow Survey, the shallowest and most extended among the ISOCAM Guaranteed Time Extragalactic Surveys (IGTES, Elbaz et al.1999), has been reduced with the technique of Lari et al. (2001). These ISOCAM 14.3 µm observations cover a region of 0.55 square arcminutes in the direction of the Lockman Hole. 457 sources are detected above the 5-sigma threshold with fluxes in the interval 0.25-19. mJy. The ISOCAM Deep Survey is a 20 X 20 square arcmins area in the Lockman Hole, at 14.3 µm. The catalog contains 283 sources detected above the 5-sigma threshold, with fluxes in the interval 0.1-8 mJy. The catalogue is 90% complete at 1 mJy. The positional accuracy, estimated from the cross-correlation of infrared and optical sources, is around 1.5 arcsec.

SWIRE catalog data are available using IRSA's Gator Catalog Search Engine, which allows for complex search queries.


How to search for data

The SWIRE (released) data coverage is represented in red as overlays on the ISSA all-sky image within the data search page. There are three methods to search for data: (1) use the Quick Search links for each field name to get data for the entire field (search size is ~7.0 square degrees), (2) type in a coordinate or object name and search size (default is 1.8 square deg) at the bottom of the search page, or (3) click on any red region on the allsky map to get a close-up of the area (the map click method search size defaults to 1.8 square degrees, but is adjustable at the bottom search criteria form).


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