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C.J. Lonsdale (IPAC/Caltech)
SWIRE is a wide-area, high latitude, imaging survey to trace the evolution of dusty, star-forming galaxies, evolved stellar populations, and AGN, as a function of environment from z~2.5 to the current epoch. SWIRE will survey 7 high latitude fields, covering about 70 sq. degrees in total, in all 7 SIRTF imaging bands, producing highly uniform source catalogs and images, providing an unprecedented view of the evolution of galaxies, structure, and AGN. Extensive modeling suggests that the Legacy Extragalactic Catalog may contain in excess of 2 million IR-selected galaxies dominated by (1) luminous infrared galaxies (log L(fir)>11 solar luminosities), up to 40,000 of them with z>2; (2) ~1 million early-type galaxies (~400,000 with z>2); and (3) ~30,000 classical AGN and as many as 250,000 dust-obscured QSO/AGN. An extensive ground-based Legacy follow-up program is being designed to provide optical identifications to R = 25 for the entire survey area and multi-color optical/near-infrared imaging (g', r', i', K') and photometric redshift information for smaller areas (~30 sq deg; Smith et al. poster at this meeting).