The GLIMPSE (Galactic Legacy
Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire) Archive is an implementation
of the GLIMPSE
Highly Reliable Catalogue (GLMC, Intermediate revision; dated 9th April
2005) and the
GLIMPSE More Complete Archive (GLMA, Intermediate revision; dated 9th April
2005). This implementation uses the same default values as specified
by GLIMPSE.
GLIMPSE is a fully sampled, confusion limited, 4-band near- to
mid-infrared survey of the inner two-thirds of the Galactic disk with a
spatial resolution of ~2 arcsec. The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) imaged 220
square degrees at wavelengths centered on 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns
in the Galactic longitude range 10 deg to 65 deg on both sides of the
Galactic center and in Galactic latitude ±1 deg.
The area covered by GLIMPSE contains most of the star formation activity in the Galaxy and ~70% of the molecular gas in the Galaxy. The inner cutoff at | l | = 10 deg permits adequate sampling of both ends of the purported ~3 kpc central bar and possibly some of the nuclear bulge stellar population. We expect to determine the asymmetry of the bar (brighter at l > 0 deg) with high accuracy. The outer cutoff at | l | = 65 deg includes all of the 5 kpc molecular ring, the Sagittarius spiral arm tangent, and the Norma spiral arm tangent. The Galactic center region is not included because of its extreme background brightness and high confusion limits.