SWIRE: The SIRTF Wide‐Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey

The SIRTF Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE), the largest SIRTF Legacy program, is a wide-area imaging survey to trace the evolution of dusty, star-forming galaxies, evolved stellar populations, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as a function of environment, from redshifts to the current z similar to 3 epoch. SWIRE will survey seven high-latitude fields, totaling 60 - 65 deg(2) in all seven SIRTF bands: Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) 3.6, 4.5, 5.6, and 8 mum and Multiband Imaging Photometer for SIRTF (MIPS) 24, 70, and 160 mum. Extensive modeling suggests that the Legacy Extragalactic Catalog may contain in excess of 2 million IR-selected galaxies, dominated by (1) similar to 150,000 luminous…