The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme (KPGT_soliver1) designed to map a set of nested fields totalling 380 sq. deg. Fields range in size from 0.01 to 20 sq. deg., using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 microns. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

The Herschel-SPIRE instrument mapped about 9% of the sky in Submillimeter broad-band filters centered at 250, 350, and 500 microns (1199, 857, 600 GHz) with spatial resolutions of 17.9", 24.2", 35.4" respectively. In total, we used the 6878 standard configuration scan maps that are available, including calibration observations. The SPIRE Point Source Catalog contains the result of a systematic and homogeneous source extraction on those maps using 4 different photometry extraction methods. Only regions affected by strong Galactic emission, mostly in the Galactic Plane, were excluded, as they tested the limits of the available source extraction methods. Aimed primarily at point sources, that allow for the best photometric accuracy, the catalog contains also significant fractions of slightly extended sources up to a limit. With most SPIRE maps being confusion limited, uncertainties in flux densities were established as a function of structure noise and flux density, based on the results of artificial source insertion experiments into real data along a range of celestial backgrounds. Many sources have been rejected that do not pass the imposed SNR threshold, especially at flux densities approaching the extragalactic confusion limit. A range of additional flags provide information on the reliability of the flux information, as well as the spatial extent and orientation of a source. Users are encouraged to check the flux density estimates of all 4 methods and follow the guidelines given in the Explanatory Supplement regarding their interpretation for point- and extended sources. For tracing back catalog objects to the originally contributing detections in SPIRE observations, a cross identification table is available that provides the relevant observation identifiers used by the Herschel Science Archive. For further details on catalog construction, detailed content, and validation, please see the Explanatory Supplement.

The Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic survey (SWIRE) is a wide-area, imaging survey to trace the evolution of dusty, star-forming galaxies, evolved stellar populations, and AGN as a function of environment, from redshifts z~3 to the current epoch. SWIRE surveys 6 high-latitude fields, totaling ~50 sq. deg. in all 7 Spitzer bands: 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 microns with IRAC and 24, 70, and 160 microns with MIPS (Lonsdale et al. 2003). The SWIRE Legacy Extragalactic Source Catalogs will eventually contain in excess of 2 million IR-selected galaxies, from those dominated by the light of stellar populations detected primarily by IRAC, to starbursts, ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and AGN detected also by MIPS.

The HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) open time key program mapped the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) at 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 microns using Herschel's PACS and SPIRE instruments. The overriding science goal of HERITAGE is to study the life cycle of matter as traced by dust in the LMC and SMC.