Concept
Main objectives of the
workshop:
To bring together French scientists active in a truly
fertile field but often segmented by the very nature of
the individual projects, and to trigger a community wide
reflection on the key role of large surveys in today's
science and how to ensure their success.
* Communities:
The first workshop was endorsed by the PNCG although the
science enabled by such surveys goes beyond
galaxies&cosmology, and, as expected, we reached an
audience extending to other poles (PNP, PNPS). We did not
in consequence request a formal endorsement for this
second edition.
* Description / Scientific context:
Wide field astronomy has now moved into an all-sky regime.
French scientists are particularly active in the arena of
wide-field imaging, the international context of
photometric surveys (deep and/or all-sky) being highly
relevant for the many themes explored within the PNCG,
PNPS, and PNP. The ESA Gaia mission is a brisk success
while the two prominent upcoming international imaging
projects, Euclid and Rubin-LSST, both cosmology driven
(Stage IV dark energy measurement) will inherently produce
datasets that will represent a treasure trove for
scientific topics ranging from the Solar System to
cosmology. This explains the large size of these
scientific collaborations, with France very well
positioned in the three projects listed above. There are
other ambitious surveys currently in acquisition phase
which focus on specific scientific aspects and,
unsurprisingly, several French experts operate within
these international collaborations (DES, DECaLS, HSC,
etc.). Specifically a French co-led effort, critical
complementary data for the Euclid space mission led to the
development of tailored ground-based surveys such as the
Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFHT), now within the
international joint effort Ultraviolet Near-Infrared
Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) with Pan-STARRS, Subaru's
WISHES, and soon CEFCA's JEDIS-g, to cover in the
u,g,r,i,z bands the northern sky in the u,g,r,i,z bands at
unprecedented depths. UNIONS which is open to anyone in the French community produces today stand-alone
scientific results, particularly on galactic archeology
and cosmology.
