WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel Survey (WISP)

WISP is a large HST pure-parallel program using the WFC3 G102 and G141 grisms to obtain images, spectra, and catalogs of star-forming galaxies between redshifts 0.5 to 2.5. The primary science goals are to measure the star formation history over the last ~10 billion years, probe galaxy clustering on Mpc scales at redshifts 1 < z < 2, constrain the evolution of dust extinction and metallicity as functions of mass and luminosity, and to conduct a serendipitous search for highly luminous Lyman alpha emitters beyond redshifts z > 6. Currently, there are 390 different fields with products available in DR2 that supersede DR1. DR3 presents reduced images and catalogs of photometric and emission-line data (~230,000 and ~8,000 sources, respectively) for the WISP survey. The data products incorporate the HST data, various ground-based facilities (ugri bands), and Spitzer IRAC (Infrared Array Camera). Coverage in at least one additional filter beyond the WFC3/IR data is available for roughly half of the fields (227 out of 483), with ~20 percent (86) having coverage in six or more filters from u band to IRAC 3.6 micron (0.35-3.6 micron). For the lower spatial resolution (and shallower) ground-based and IRAC data, the team performs PSF (point spread function)-matched, prior-based, deconfusion photometry (i.e. forced-photometry) using the TPHOT software to optimally extract measurements or upper limits. The WISP emission-line detection algorithm adopts a continuous wavelet transformation that significantly reduces the number of spurious sources.