Band Merging of Spitzer Detections in the SWIRE Fields

Abstract

The Spitzer Wide-area Infra-Red Extragalactic (SWIRE) Survey has imaged 49 deg^2 of high-Galactic-latitude sky in seven infrared bands spanning wavelengths from 3.6 μm to 160 μm, with beam sizes ranging from about 2″ to 40″. Lists of extracted sources from the individual bands are merged using the Spitzer band merging software. Positions and their uncertainties are used to identify possible band-to-band matches, then decision theory is applied to choose a best match. We present our assessment of band merging reliability based on analysis of the random match rate, and we discuss our application of constraints of multi-band detections and proximity to produce reliable catalogs. We examine the crucial role played by positional uncertainties for extractions made with SExtractor and with Spitzer's Astronomical Point-source EXtraction (APEX) software.

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