===========================================================================
COSMOS GALEX Data                                             Version 2.0
===========================================================================

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is an HST Treasury Project to survey
a 2 square degree equatorial field, centered on RA=10:00:28.6 and
DEC=+02:12:21.0, using the ACS camera. The project also incorporates major
commitments from other observatories around the world.

These data represent the second public release of the COSMOS observations
from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA small explorer mission.
Included in this release are 4 pointings covering the full 2-square degree
survey region, observed in the GALEX FUV and NUV channels. 

The key characteristics of these data:

	Instrument:             Galaxy Evolution Explorer
	Dates of observations:  Winter/Spring 2004, Spring 2006	
	Observing time:         45ksec, FUV, 50ksec, NUV.
	Filter:	                GALEX FUV and NUV
	Area:                   ~2 sq deg
	Resolution:             1.5"/pixel 

The data products available here include four pointings (01-04) in two
wavelength regimes (near-UV and far-UV [n or f]). The files are named 
as follows:

	  COSMOS_0[1234]-[fn]d-*.fits

where the "*" denotes:

	flags    - pipeline flag map
	int      - intensity map
	skybg    - sky background map
	rrhr     - total relative response map

So, for example,

 	COSMOS_03-fd-int.fits

is the far-UV intensity map for pointing 03.

For each pointing a merged FUV and NUV source catalog is included:
COSMOS_0[1234]-xd-mcat.fits.  Also provided are pipeline summary and qa text 
files: COSMOS_0[1234]-qa.txt and COSMOS_0[1234]-sumstats.txt

Note that the version number of the pipeline run is contained in the
primary header of each file under the header cards 'GREL00[nn]' where
nn contains the number of all of the GALEX visits included in the
co-add.  For release 2, all such values are 'ops-v5_1_0'.  Release 1
values for these entries were: 'ops-v4_1-RC2'

Further information may be obtained from the GALEX home page:

	http://www.galex.caltech.edu/

Additional documentation regarding data products may be found at the MAST 
(Multi-mission Archive at Space Telescope) GALEX data release web page:

	http://galex.stsci.edu/GR2/

These data are also described in detail in Schiminovich, D. et al. (2006) 
"Deep GALEX Imaging of the HST/COSMOS Field I: Survey Description and 
Properties of the Combined Sample", in prep.

===========================================================================
GALEX-COSMOS team contacts: David Schiminovich, Michel Zamojski
ds@astro.columbia.edu, zamojski@astro.columbia.edu

September 2006