The JWST UNCOVER Treasury survey: Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization

TL;DR

The UNCOVER survey utilizes JWST's NIRSpec and NIRCam to obtain ultradeep imaging and spectroscopy of the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster, aiming to study galaxies before reionization with unprecedented detail and depth.

Contribution

This paper presents the survey design, early imaging results, and data release plans for the first ultradeep JWST observations targeting the epoch before reionization.

Findings

First ultradeep 2-4 micron imaging of the field.

Deep imaging reaching 29-30 AB magnitude.

Public release of mosaics for community use.

Abstract

In this paper we describe the survey design for the Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization (UNCOVER) Cycle 1 \JWST Treasury program, which executed its early imaging component in November 2022. The UNCOVER survey includes ultradeep ($\sim29-30\mathrm{AB}$) imaging of $\sim$45 arcmin$^2$ on and around the well-studied Abell 2744 galaxy cluster at $z=0.308$ and will follow-up ${\sim}500$ galaxies with extremely deep low-resolution spectroscopy with the NIRSpec/PRISM during the summer of 2023, with repeat visits in summer 2024. We describe the science goals, survey design, target selection, and planned data releases. We also present and characterize the depths of the first NIRCam imaging mosaic, highlighting previously unparalleled resolved and ultradeep 2-4 micron imaging of known objects in the field. The UNCOVER primary NIRCam mosaic spans 28.8 arcmin$^2$ in seven filters (F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F410M, F444W) and 16.8 arcmin$^2$ in our NIRISS parallel (F115W, F150W, F200W, F356W, and F444W). To maximize early community use of the Treasury data set, we publicly release full reduced mosaics of public JWST imaging including 45 arcmin$^2$ NIRCam and 17 arcmin$^2$ NIRISS mosaics on and around the Abell 2744 cluster, including the Hubble Frontier Field primary and parallel footprints.