Data from The NIRSpec WIDE GTO Survey

The NIRSpec Wide Survey, part of the NIRSpec Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO), consists of 31 pointings covering approximately 320 square arcminutes in the five CANDELS extragalactic fields with exquisite ancillary Hubble Space Telescope photometry. Each pointing utilizes NIRSpec’s microshutter array (MSA) to simultaneously obtain spectra for an average of 135 galaxies each. Observations are performed with the low-resolution PRISM (2451s), the high-resolution G235H grating (1634s), and the high-resolution G395H grating (1780s). Pointing centers are determined to maximize the observability of the rarest, high-value sources. Subsequently, the microshutter configurations are optimized to observe the maximum number of "census" galaxies with a selection function based primarily on HST/F160W magnitude, photometric/slitless grism redshift, and predicted Halpha flux tracing the bulk of the galaxy population at cosmic noon (z=2).

Here the team releases the reduced 2D and 1D extracted spectra. To mitigate self-subtraction when performing nodded background subtraction for very extended objects, the team releases the PRISM data with a two-point nodding pattern in addition to the default three-point pattern; only two-point nodding is available for the high-resolution gratings. Various 1D boxcar extraction apertures are released, which can be chosen to optimize a source’s signal-to-noise. In total the team produces three-nod, 3 pixel extraction and three-nod 5 pixel extraction for the PRISM exposures and two-nod 5 pixel extraction and two-nod 15 pixel extraction for PRISM, G235H, and G395H exposures.