3D-DASH: The Widest Near-Infrared Hubble Space Telescope Survey

TL;DR

The 3D-DASH program is a large-scale Hubble Space Telescope survey in the near-infrared, covering 1.43 square degrees of the COSMOS field, enabling studies of distant and intermediate-redshift galaxies with high resolution.

Contribution

It presents the widest HST/WFC3 F160W imaging mosaic to date, significantly expanding the area for near-infrared extragalactic studies with high-resolution imaging.

Findings

Provides a 1.43 deg² F160W mosaic with median 5σ limit of 24.74 mag

Enables spatially-resolved studies of galaxy populations at various redshifts

Supersedes previous surveys in area coverage by an order of magnitude.

Abstract

The 3D-Drift And SHift (3D-DASH) program is a \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} WFC3 F160W imaging and G141 grism survey of the equatorial COSMOS field. 3D-DASH extends the legacy of HST near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy to degree-scale swaths of the sky, enabling the identification and study of distant galaxies ($z>2$) that are rare or in short-lived phases of galaxy evolution at rest-frame optical wavelengths. Furthermore, when combined with existing ACS/F814W imaging, the program facilitates spatially-resolved studies of the stellar populations and dust content of intermediate-redshift ($0.5<z<2$) galaxies. Here we present the reduced F160W imaging mosaic available to the community. Observed with the efficient DASH technique, the mosaic comprises 1256 individual WFC3 pointings, corresponding to an area of 1.35 deg$^2$ (1.43 deg$^2$ in 1912 when including archival data). The median $5\sigma$ point-source limit in $H_{160}$ is 24.74 mag. We also provide tools to determine the local point spread function (PSF), create cutouts, and explore the image at any location within the 3D-DASH footprint. 3D-DASH is the widest \textit{HST}/WFC3 imaging survey in the F160W filter to date, increasing the existing extragalactic survey area in the near-infrared at HST resolution by an order of magnitude.