The VOICE Survey : VST Optical Imaging of the CDFS and ES1 Fields

Abstract

We present the VST Optical Imaging of the CDFS and ES1 Fields (VOICE) Survey, a VST INAF Guaranteed Time program designed to provide optical coverage of two 4 deg2 cosmic windows in the Southern hemisphere. VOICE provides the first, multi-band deep optical imaging of these sky regions, thus complementing and enhancing the rich legacy of longer-wavelength surveys with VISTA, Spitzer, Herschel and ATCA available in these areas and paving the way for upcoming observations with facilities such as the LSST, MeerKAT and the SKA. VOICE exploits VST's OmegaCAM optical imaging capabilities and completes the reduction of WFI data available within the ES1 fields as part of the ESO-Spitzer Imaging Extragalactic Survey (ESIS) program providing ugri and uBVR coverage of 4 and 4 deg2 areas within the CDFS and ES1 field respectively. We present the survey's science rationale and observing strategy, the data reduction and multi-wavelength data fusion pipeline. Survey data products and their future updates will be released at http://www.mattiavaccari.net/voice/ and on CDS/VizieR.