A wide area imaging and spectroscopic survey to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration that will enable a wide range of science investigations including solar system objects, Galactic structure, nearby galaxies, and galaxy and quasar evolution out to the epoch of reionization. The High Latitude Wide Area Survey imaging survey is designed to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration by using weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering to make precision measurements of cosmic expansion and the growth of cosmic structure. The High Latitude Wide Area Survey spectroscopic survey is designed to achieve similar goals using precision measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift-space distortions in galaxy clustering. The Deep Tier provides necessary calibration data for the Medium and Wide Tiers, and it will be a powerful resource for studying faint stellar populations and the most distant galaxies and quasars.

The High Latitude Wide Area Survey includes Medium, Deep, and Wide Tiers. The Medium Tier will enable the study of local galaxies, Milky Way stellar populations, and the relation between galaxies and dark matter over a vast span of redshifts via a 2400 deg² Y-, J-, and H-band imaging and grism spectroscopic survey. The Deep Tier will enable the study of faint objects (e.g., most distant galaxies) and include a dense time-sampling for solar system science via multi-band imaging and grism spectroscopy comparatively deeper than the Medium Tier. The Wide Tier will add an additional 2700 deg² in the H-band alone to more than double the total area of the High Latitude Wide Area Survey (>5000 deg2) and to overlap with Rubin optical photometry and other wide-field multi-wavelength surveys. High Latitude Wide Area Survey observations will be spread throughout the 5-year mission, with at least half of the Deep Tier observations carried out early in the mission and most of the Wide Tier observations carried out late in the mission. This survey is allocated ~17 months of time.

Medium Tier

•  Enable the study of local galaxies, Milky Way stellar populations, and the relation between galaxies and dark matter over a vast span of redshifts
•  2400 deg²
•  F106 (Y), F129 (J), and F158 (H) imaging and grism spectroscopy

Deep Tier

•  Enable studies of faint objects (e.g., most distant galaxies); includes dense time-sampling for solar system science
•  19.2 deg²; covers 2 Rubin near-equatorial deep drilling fields
•  F087 (Z), F106 (Y), F129 (J), F158 (H), F184 (F), F213 (K), and F146 (wide) imaging and grism spectroscopy
•  F106 (Y), F129 (J), and F158 (H) ~1.2 mag deeper and grism 8x longer exposures than Medium Tier; same exposure times for other filters
•  Ultra-deep component
  • Calibrating noise biases in weak lensing shape measurements
  • 5 deg² F106 (Y), F129 (J), and F158 (H) imaging to 1.7 mag deeper than Medium Tier

Wide Tier

•  Additional 2700 deg² in F158 (H) alone
•  Exposure time matches Medium Tier
•  More than doubles the total survey area to over 5000 deg²
•  Should overlap with Rubin optical photometry and other wide-field multi-wavelength surveys (e.g., DESI spectroscopic galaxy survey)

The proposed High Latitude Wide Area Survey regions in equatorial cylindrical equal area projection with the Medium (yellow), Wide (red), and Deep (grey) fields denoted.

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