Candels: The cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey - The hubble space telescope observations, imaging data products, and mosaics

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 super...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Koekemoer, A, Faber, S, Ferguson, H, Grogin, N, Kocevski, D, Koo, D, Lai, K, Lotz, J, Lucas, R, McGrath, E, Ogaz, S, Rajan, A, Riess, A, Rodney, SA, Strolger, L, Casertano, S, Castellano, M, Dahlen, T, Dickinson, M, Dolch, T, Fontana, A, Giavalisco, M, Grazian, A, Guo, Y, Hathi, N
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2011
Description
Summary: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 arcmin 2 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. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..