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| HSC Survey | |
|---|---|
| Name | HSC Survey |
| Caption | Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope |
| Type | Imaging survey |
| Telescope | Subaru Telescope |
| Instrument | Hyper Suprime-Cam |
| Location | Mauna Kea |
| Start | 2014 |
| Wavelength | Optical, near-infrared |
| Area | 1400 deg² (planned) |
| Data products | Imaging catalogs, shape catalogs, photo-z catalogs |
HSC Survey The HSC Survey is a wide-field optical imaging program conducted with the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea using the Hyper Suprime-Cam. It combines deep, high-resolution imaging for cosmology, galaxy evolution, and transient science with multi-band photometry tied to legacy programs such as Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Pan-STARRS, CFHTLenS, and the VISTA Hemisphere Survey. The project engages institutions including National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Princeton University, University of Tokyo, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The survey comprises multiple layers—UltraDeep, Deep, and Wide—optimized for sensitivity, areal coverage, and time-domain cadence to probe phenomena from Type Ia supernovae to large-scale structure traced by luminous red galaxies and quasars like 3C 273. The Wide layer targets cosmological constraints through weak gravitational lensing studies anchored to spectroscopic calibration from surveys such as SDSS-III BOSS, eBOSS, DEEP2, and VIPERS. The Deep and UltraDeep layers support high-redshift galaxy searches tied to follow-up with facilities including ALMA, Keck Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, and Hubble Space Telescope.
The instrument, Hyper Suprime-Cam, is a 870-megapixel prime-focus camera with a mosaic of CCDs providing a 1.5-degree field of view on the Subaru Telescope. Filter sets include broadbands (g, r, i, z, y) and narrow bands designed to detect emission lines from sources such as Lyman-alpha blobs, H-alpha emitters, and [O III emitters at targeted redshifts. The survey strategy balances seeing constraints from site monitoring at Mauna Kea against exposure times modeled with throughput budgets derived from detector characterization performed with teams from Hamamatsu Photonics and electronics groups at National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
Tiling patterns and dither strategies were developed with inputs from projects like DES, KiDS, and HETDEX to maximize uniformity and mitigate systematics from scattered light and ghosting observed in earlier instruments such as Suprime-Cam. The camera's focal plane electronics and cryogenic system were integrated with Subaru's control systems maintained by engineers associated with NAOJ and partner institutions including IPMU and Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe.
Data processing uses pipelines adapted from the LSST stack and informed by experience from Pan-STARRS1 processing, producing calibrated images, coadds, and object catalogs. Photometric calibration leverages cross-matches to standards from Pan-STARRS, SDSS, and the Gaia astrometric reference frame to achieve millimagnitude-level relative photometry. Astrometric solutions incorporate proper motion models anchored to Gaia DR2 and tie-in to spectroscopic redshift samples from DEEP2 and VIPERS.
Image subtraction for transient detection employs algorithms comparable to those used in Zwicky Transient Facility pipelines and optimized for the HSC point-spread-function to discover transients including kilonova candidates and superluminous supernovae associated with hosts previously cataloged in surveys such as COSMOS and GOODS. Weak-lensing shape measurements follow methods developed in collaborations with groups behind CFHTLenS and KiDS, with extensive null tests comparing to overlapping datasets like DES.
Primary goals include constraints on dark energy parameters via weak lensing and galaxy clustering, measurements of galaxy evolution across cosmic time, searches for high-redshift quasars and galaxies, and time-domain discoveries. Key results include high-significance cosmic shear measurements complementary to results from Planck cosmic microwave background analyses and joint probes with BOSS BAO measurements. HSC has produced deep samples of z>6 quasars comparable to those found by UKIDSS and VIKING, and has identified strong-lens systems similar to those in SLACS enabling mass-profile studies alongside follow-up with Keck and HST.
Time-domain discoveries include rapidly evolving transients reported in coordination with LIGO candidate localizations and electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave triggers, building upon methodologies used in PTF and ATLAS surveys. Galaxy evolution studies have exploited HSC's depth to trace stellar mass functions and star-formation main sequence evolution observed in surveys like UltraVISTA and CANDELS.
Public data releases have provided imaging and catalog products through data release portals maintained by NAOJ and partner data centers at institutions such as University of Tokyo and Princeton University. Data Release 1 and subsequent releases included calibrated coadds, multi-band catalogs, photometric redshifts cross-validated against spectroscopic samples from SDSS, DEEP2, and VVDS, and shape catalogs for weak lensing analyses. The HSC data products are frequently used in cross-survey science with LSST Science Collaborations, Euclid Consortium, and archival follow-up by facilities such as JWST.
The HSC project is a multinational collaboration involving Japanese, US, and Taiwanese institutions, with scientific ties to large surveys and missions including LSST, Euclid, WFIRST (now Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope), and SPHEREx. Its high-quality imaging legacy supports spectroscopic target selection for programs at Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph and facilities such as VLT and Magellan. HSC methodologies have influenced pipeline development at LSST and shaped strategies for future wide-field cameras and surveys conducted by observatories including Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Category:Astronomical surveys