Science with Astronomical Near-Infrared Sky Surveys, Reprinted from ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE 217:1-2, 1994 Proceedings of the Les Houches School, Centre de Physique des Houches, Les Houches, France, 20–24 September, 1993

Outstanding progress in near-infrared detection technology and in real-time image processing has led astronomers to start undertaking all-sky surveys in the 1--2 mum range (project DENIS in Europe and 2MASS in the U.S.A.), surveys which will have a considerable impact in various areas of astronomy. This book gathers the contributions of more than 80 specialists involved in fields of interest as different as low mass stars, late stages of stellar evolution, star formation, stellar populations of the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds, the local structure of the Universe, and observational cosmology. It describes the impact on these fields of the exhaustive data bases and catalogs of stars and galaxies that these surveys will provide. The considerable interest of these documents for the future of infrared space and ground-based projects and the complementarity with other currently ongoing or planned surveys in other spectral ranges are emphasized.

I. Infrared and Other Sky Surveys.- DENIS: A Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky.- The Two Micron All Sky Survey. Survey Rationale and Initial Testing.- The Influence of Crowding on DENIS Point Source Detection Rates.- Strategy of DENIS Observations.- First Results Obtained with DENIS.- Sloan Digital Sky Survey.- The Guide Star Catalog and Related Sky Surveys.- Infrared Space Borne Experiments to Study Galactic Structure.- The Project “SPICE”. Spectrp-Photometric Infrared Celestial Explorer.- EDISON — The International Infrared Space Observatory. The Next Generation.- Classification of Astronomical Images with a Neural Network.- The Project of High Spatial Resolution near Infrared Imaging System at Beijing Observatory.- II. Low Mass Stars and Main Sequence Stars.- DENIS, 2MASS and VLM Stars.- Low Mass Stars.- The Search for Brown Dwarfs with Infrared Surveys.- Hipparcos and Red Dwarf Populations.- Sternberg WBVR Photometric Survey of Bright Stars.- Spectrophotometric Catalog of the Steinberg Astronomical Institute in the Ultraviolet, Visual and Near Infrared.- Search for New Nearby Stars with DENIS.- Artificial IJK Two-Colour Diagrams for Field Stars.- Asteroid Detection with DENIS.- III. Late Type Stars.- Short Period Miras and Galactic Structure.- Infrared Photometry of AGB Stars.- Infrared Surveys and Variables on the AGB.- AGB Stars in the Magellanic Clouds.- AGB Stars and Red Supergiants in the LMC as Seen with DENIS.- O-Rich SR and Mira Variables in DENIS.- Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Classify IRAS LRS Sepctra of Evolved Stars.- Carbon Stars in Infrared Surveys.- The Evolution from Visible to Infrared Variable AGB Stars. What Can DENIS Contribute to This Study?.- Infrared Colours of Selected Long Period Variables.- The Frequency ofCircumstellar Envelopes among TMSS Stars.- Infrared Velocities of Carbon Stars.- A Near-Infrared Survey of IRAS Sources in the South Galactic Cap.- Mira Light Curves and Mass Loss.- Strategy of Infrared Surveys for Studying Galactic Evolved Stars and their Subclasses. Contribution to the Panel Discussion.- IV. Galactic Structure.- Synthesis of Galactic Stellar Populations and Expected Constraints from Infrared Surveys.- Infrared Surveys: Some Prospects for Galactic Structure Studies Using Cepheids and Other Young Objects.- Galactic Structure from the Two Micron Galactic Survey.- A Powerful New Model for the Point Source Sky.- The Leiden/Dwingeloo Survey of Emission from Galactic HI.- Are Molecular Clouds Formed by Impact of High-Velocity Clouds?.- Current Problems in Star Formation and Infrared Surveys.- Star Formation in Taurus. Preliminary Results from 2MASS.- Search for Young Stars with IR Surveys: Regions of Massive Star Formation.- The Stellar Populations within the ? Oph Cloud Cores.- Investigation of the Be Star Phenomenon Using the DENIS Data.- Discussion Session on Star Formation, Molecular Clouds and the Interstellar Medium.- VI. Extragalactic Structure.- Near-Infrared Observations of AGN.- Groups and Clusters in the Near-Infrared.- Comparison of Large-Scale Structures and Velocities in the Local Universe.- Red Post-Starburst Galaxies.- DENIS for the Extragalactic Distance Scale. Panel Discussion on Infrared Observations of Galaxies.- LEDA. The Lyon–Meudon Extragalactic Database for the DENIS Project.- Star Formation in Starburst Galaxies from Near-IR Spectroscopy and Evolutionary Population Synthesis.- Modelling Evolution of Stellar Emission of Galaxies for the NIR Surveys.- The Nature of the Blue Distant Galaxies.