CFHTLenS: the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey - imaging data and catalogue products

T. Erben*, H. Hildebrandt, L. Miller, L. van Waerbeke, C. Heymans, H. Hoekstra, T. D. Kitching, Y. Mellier, J. Benjamin, C. Blake, C. Bonnett, O. Cordes, J. Coupon, L. Fu, R. Gavazzi, Bryan Gillis, E. Grocutt, S. D. J. Gwyn, K. Holhjem, M. J. HudsonM. Kilbinger, K. Kuijken, M. Milkeraitis, B. T. P. Rowe, T. Schrabback, E. Semboloni, P. Simon, M. Smit, O. Toader, S. Vafaei, E. van Uitert, M. Velander

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present data products from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). CFHTLenS is based on the Wide component of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). It encompasses 154 deg(2) of deep, optical, high-quality, sub-arcsecond imaging data in the five optical filters u*g(')r(')i(')z('). The scientific aims of the CFHTLenS team are weak gravitational lensing studies supported by photometric redshift estimates for the galaxies. This paper presents our data processing of the complete CFHTLenS data set. We were able to obtain a data set with very good image quality and high-quality astrometric and photometric calibration. Our external astrometric accuracy is between 60 and 70 mas with respect to Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data, and the internal alignment in all filters is around 30 mas. Our average photometric calibration shows a dispersion of the order of 0.01-0.03 mag for g(')r(')i(')z(') and about 0.04 mag for u* with respect to SDSS sources down to i(SDSS) <21. We demonstrate in accompanying papers that our data meet necessary requirements to fully exploit the survey for weak gravitational lensing analyses in connection with photometric redshift studies. In the spirit of the CFHTLS, all our data products are released to the astronomical community via the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre at ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/community/CFHTLens/query.html" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://www.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/community/CFHTLens/query.html. We give a description and how-to manuals of the public products which include image pixel data, source catalogues with photometric redshift estimates and all relevant quantities to perform weak lensing studies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2545-2563
Number of pages19
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume433
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2013

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • methods: data analysis
  • cosmology: observations
  • DIGITAL SKY SURVEY
  • COSMIC SHEAR ANALYSIS
  • BONN DEEP SURVEY
  • DATA RELEASE
  • GALAXY CLUSTERS
  • DARK-ENERGY
  • SDSS-III
  • WEAK
  • CONSTRAINTS
  • WIDE

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