Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg 2 in five broad bands (grizy), with a 5 σ point-source depth of r ≈ 26. The Deep layer covers a total of 26 deg 2 in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg 2). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey.

We present new measurements of the quasar luminosity function (LF) at z ∼ 6 over an unprecedentedly wide range of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity M 1450 from −30 to −22 mag. This is the fifth in a series of publications from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, which exploits the deep multiband imaging data produced by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program survey. The LF was calculated with a complete sample of 110 quasars at 5.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.5, which includes 48 SHELLQs quasars discovered over 650 deg2 and 63 brighter quasars discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Canada–France–Hawaii Quasar Survey (including one overlapping object). This is the largest sample of z ∼ 6 quasars with a well-defined selection function constructed to date, which has allowed us to detect significant flattening of the LF at its faint end. A double power-law function fit to the sample yields a faint-end slope , a bright-end slope , a break magnitude , and a characteristic space density Gpc−3 mag−1. Integrating this best-fit model over the range −18 < M 1450 < −30 mag, quasars emit ionizing photons at the rate of s−1 Mpc−3 at z = 6.0. This is less than 10% of the critical rate necessary to keep the intergalactic medium ionized, which indicates that quasars are not a major contributor to cosmic reionization.

This paper presents the second data release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, a wide-field optical imaging survey using the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope. The release includes data from 174 nights of observation through 2018 January. The Wide layer data cover about 300 deg$^2$ in all five broad-band filters ($grizy$) to the nominal survey exposure (10 min in $gr$ and 20 min in $izy$). Partially observed areas are also included in the release; about 1100 deg$^2$ is observed in at least one filter and one exposure. The median seeing in the i-band is ${0_{.}^{\prime \prime }6}$, demonstrating the superb image quality of the survey. The Deep (26 deg$^2$) and UltraDeep (4 deg$^2$) data are jointly processed and the UltraDeep-COSMOS field reaches an unprecedented depth of $i\sim 28$ at $5 \, \sigma$ for point sources. In addition to the broad-band data, narrow-band data are also available in the Deep and UltraDeep fields. This release includes a major update to the processing pipeline, including improved sky subtraction, PSF modeling, object detection, and artifact rejection. The overall data quality has been improved, but this release is not without problems; there is a persistent deblender problem as well as new issues with masks around bright stars. The user is encouraged to review the issue list before utilizing the data for scientific explorations. All the image products as well as catalog products are available for download. The catalogs are also loaded into a database, which provides an easy interface for users to retrieve data for objects of interest. In addition to these main data products, detailed galaxy shape measurements withheld from Public Data Release 1 (PDR1) are now available to the community. The shape catalog is drawn from the S16A internal release, which has a larger area than PDR1 (160 deg$^2$). All products are available at the data release site, https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/.

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is a three-layered imaging survey aimed at addressing some of the most important outstanding questions in astronomy today, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The survey has been awarded 300 nights of observing time at the Subaru Telescope, and it started in 2014 March. This paper presents the first public data release of HSC-SSP. This release includes data taken in the first 1.7 yr of observations (61.5 nights), and each of the Wide, Deep, and UltraDeep layers covers about 108, 26, and 4 square degrees down to depths of i ∼ 26.4, ∼26.5, and ∼27.0 mag, respectively (5 σ for point sources). All the layers are observed in five broad bands (grizy), and the Deep and UltraDeep layers are observed in narrow bands as well. We achieve an impressive image quality of 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$6 in the i band in the Wide layer. We show that we achieve 1%–2% point spread function (PSF) photometry (root mean square) both internally and externally (against Pan-STARRS1), and ∼10 mas and 40 mas internal and external astrometric accuracy, respectively. Both the calibrated images and catalogs are made available to the community through dedicated user interfaces and database servers. In addition to the pipeline products, we also provide value-added products such as photometric redshifts and a collection of public spectroscopic redshifts. Detailed descriptions of all the data can be found online. The data release website is https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp.