The CEERS Photometric and Physical Parameter Catalog

TL;DR

CEERS addresses the need for precise, multiwavelength photometry and derived galaxy properties in the JWST era by delivering a public catalog based on NIRCam and HST data for the Extended Groth Strip. It combines PSF-matched photometry, photometric redshifts with LePHARE validated to $z\sim10$ with $\sigma_{NMAD}$ between 0.035 and 0.073, and multiple SED-fitting codes to derive stellar masses, SFRs, and reddening, along with redshift PDFs. The data products include photometry for >80,000 galaxies, full image mosaics, and the CEERS v1.0 Data Release, enabling rapid follow-up and cross-survey science with a well-characterized footprint. The work establishes a lasting legacy catalog with consistent cross-instrument calibration in the EGS field, underpinning studies of galaxy evolution from Cosmic Dawn to Cosmic Noon.

Abstract

We present the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS) catalog, including space-based photometry, photometric redshifts, and physical parameters for more than 80,000 galaxies. The imaging used for this catalog comes from the CEERS survey, which has NIRCam coverage over ~100 sq. arcmin of the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) in seven filters from 1.15$μ$m to 4.44$μ$m. Alongside these data, we also include ancillary HST imaging in seven filters from 0.435$μ$m to 1.6$μ$m. We used Source Extractor with hot and cold detection settings to extract photometry. We derive photometric redshifts using the spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling code, LePHARE, and estimate their accuracy using spectroscopically confirmed galaxies out to $z\sim10$, with $σ_{NMAD}$ ranging from 0.035-0.073, depending strongly on galaxy magnitude and redshift. We compute stellar masses, star formation rates, and E(B-V) using three different SED fitting codes with different templates and assumptions about the galaxy star formation histories. All of these measurements, as well as the full mosaics in all filters, and redshift probability distribution functions, are made available via the CEERS DR1.0 data release.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: A color composite (RGB combination including all seven NIRCam filters) of the full CEERS v1.0 mosaic, including the half-pointing from DDT program 2750 arrabalharo23a. There are regions of the mosaic along the edges of some pointings and in the detector gaps where sources appear redder. These regions are covered by only the long-wavelength NIRCam filters, and we have flagged the sources in this region as described in Section \ref{['sec: flags']}
• Figure 2: The catalog (lines) and point source (points) depths for each of the 14 photometric filters included in the CEERS photometric catalog along with the filter transmission curves (top panel). Dashed lines represent data for HST filters, whereas solid lines represent JWST filters. The catalog depths were calculated as the 5$\sigma$-clipped median of the empirical errors (described in Section \ref{['sec: errors']}), and the shaded region shows the 1$\sigma$ spread on each of those measurements. Catalog depths are shallower than point-source depths in each filter due to the resolved nature of most catalog sources. Each of the depth values can be found in Table 4.