The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): Survey Definition and Goals

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Vol. 124; no. 917; pp. 714 - 736
• Main Authors: Mauduit, J.-C., Lacy, M., Farrah, D., Surace, J. A., Jarvis, M., Oliver, S., Maraston, C., Vaccari, M., Marchetti, L., Zeimann, G., Gonzáles-Solares, E. A., Pforr, J., Petric, A. O., Henriques, B., Thomas, P. A., Afonso, J., Rettura, A., Wilson, G., Falder, J. T., Geach, J. E., Huynh, M., Norris, R. P., Seymour, N., Richards, G. T., Stanford, S. A., Alexander, D. M., Becker, R. H., Best, P. N., Bizzocchi, L., Bonfield, D., Castro, N., Cava, A., Chapman, S., Christopher, N., Clements, D. L., Covone, G., Dubois, N., Dunlop, J. S., Dyke, E., Edge, A., Ferguson, H. C., Foucaud, S., Franceschini, A., Gal, R. R., Grant, J. K., Grossi, M., Hatziminaoglou, E., Hickey, S., Hodge, J. A., Huang, J.-S., Ivison, R. J., Kim, M., LeFevre, O., Lehnert, M., Lonsdale, C. J., Lubin, L. M., McLure, R. J., Messias, H., Martínez-Sansigre, A., Mortier, A. M. J., Nielsen, D. M., Ouchi, M., Parish, G., Perez-Fournon, I., Pierre, M., Rawlings, S., Readhead, A., Ridgway, S. E., Rigopoulou, D., Romer, A. K., Rosebloom, I. G., Rottgering, H. J. A., Rowan-Robinson, M., Sajina, A., Simpson, C. J., Smail, I., Squires, G. K., Stevens, J. A., Taylor, R., Trichas, M., Urrutia, T., van Kampen, E., Verma, A., Xu, C. K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL University of Chicago Press 01-07-2012; Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• Subjects: Astronomy; Astrophysics; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Sciences of the Universe
• ISSN: 0004-6280; 1538-3873
• DOI: 10.1086/666945

We present the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), an18 deg2
18

deg
2
medium-deep survey at 3.6 and 4.5 μm with the postcryogenicSpitzer Space Telescopeto≈2 μJy
≈
2

μ
Jy
(AB = 23.1
AB
=
23.1
) depth of five highly observed astronomical fields (ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-S1, Lockman Hole, Chandra Deep Field South, and XMM-LSS). SERVS is designed to enable the study of galaxy evolution as a function of environment from
z ∼ 5
z
∼
5
to the present day and is the first extragalactic survey that is both large enough and deep enough to put rare objects such as luminous quasars and galaxy clusters at
z ≳ 1
z
≳
1
into their cosmological context. SERVS is designed to overlap with several key surveys at optical, near- through far-infrared, submillimeter, and radio wavelengths to provide an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies. In this article, we discuss the SERVS survey design, the data processing flow from image reduction and mosaicking to catalogs, and coverage of ancillary data from other surveys in the SERVS fields. We also highlight a variety of early science results from the survey.