Spitzer 70 and 160-micron Observations of the COSMOS Field

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed Spitzer 70 and 160 micron observations of the COSMOS field, including data processing, source counts, and confusion noise levels, contributing valuable data for infrared extragalactic studies.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive source counts and confusion noise measurements for the COSMOS field at these wavelengths, updating previous counts with new calibration and large-area data.

Findings

Source counts agree with other fields and models

Confusion noise levels are quantified for both bands

Updated counts for GOODS-North and FLS surveys

Abstract

We present Spitzer 70 and 160 micron observations of the COSMOS Spitzer survey (S-COSMOS). The data processing techniques are discussed for the publicly released products consisting of images and source catalogs. We present accurate 70 and 160 micron source counts of the COSMOS field and find reasonable agreement with measurements in other fields and with model predictions. The previously reported counts for GOODS-North and the extragalactic First Look Survey are updated with the latest calibration, and counts are measured based on the large area SWIRE survey to constrain the bright source counts. We measure an extragalactic confusion noise level of sigma_c = 9.4+/-3.3 mJy (q=5) for the MIPS 160-micron band based on the deep S-COSMOS data and report an updated confusion noise level of sigma_c = 0.35+/-0.15 mJy (q=5) for the MIPS 70-micron band.