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Abstract While space-borne optical and near-infrared facilities have succeeded in delivering a precise and spatially resolved picture of our Universe, their small survey area is known to underrepresent the true diversity of galaxy populations. Ground-based surveys have reached comparable depths but at lower spatial resolution, resulting in source confusion that hampers accurate photometry extractions. What once was limited to the infrared regime has now begun to challenge ground-based ultradeep surveys, affecting detection and photometry alike. Failing to address these challenges will mean forfeiting a representative view into the distant Universe. We introduceThe Farmer: an automated, reproducible profile-fitting photometry package that pairs a library of smooth parametric models fromThe Tractorwith a decision tree that determines the best-fit model in concert with neighboring sources. Photometry is measured by fitting the models on other bands leaving brightness free to vary. The resulting photometric measurements are naturally total, and no aperture corrections are required. Supporting diagnostics (e.g.,χ²) enable measurement validation. As fitting models is relatively time intensive,The Farmeris built with high-performance computing routines. We benchmarkThe Farmeron a set of realistic COSMOS-like images and find accurate photometry, number counts, and galaxy shapes.The Farmeris already being utilized to produce catalogs for several large-area deep extragalactic surveys where it has been shown to tackle some of the most challenging optical and near-infrared data available, with the promise of extending to other ultradeep surveys expected in the near future.The Farmeris available to download from GitHub (https://github.com/astroweaver/the_farmer) and Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8205817). 

The north ecliptic pole (NEP) is an important region for extragalactic surveys. Deep and wide contiguous surveys are being performed by several space observatories, most currently with the eROSITA telescope. Several more are planned for the near future. We analyse all the ROSAT pointed and survey observations in a region of 40 deg 2 around the NEP, restricting the ROSAT field of view to the inner 30′ radius. We obtain an X-ray catalogue of 805 sources with 0.5−2 keV fluxes > 2.9 × 10 −15 erg cm −2 s −1 , about a factor of three deeper than the ROSAT All-Sky Survey in this field. The sensitivity and angular resolution of our data are comparable to the eROSITA All-Sky Survey expectations. The 50% position error radius of the sample of X-ray sources is ∼10″. We use HEROES optical and near-infrared imaging photometry from the Subaru and Canada/France/Hawaii telescopes together with GALEX, SDSS, Pan-STARRS, and WISE catalogues, as well as images from a new deep and wide Spitzer survey in the field to statistically identify the X-ray sources and to calculate photometric redshifts for the candidate counterparts. In particular, we utilize mid-infrared (mid-IR) colours to identify active galactic nucleus (AGN) X-ray counterparts. Despite the relatively large error circles and often faint counterparts, together with confusion issues and systematic errors, we obtain a rather reliable catalogue of 766 high-quality optical counterparts, corresponding redshifts and optical classifications. The quality of the dataset is sufficient to look at ensemble properties of X-ray source classes. In particular we find a new population of luminous absorbed X-ray AGN at large redshifts, identified through their mid-IR colours. This populous group of AGN was not recognized in previous X-ray surveys, but could be identified in our work due to the unique combination of survey solid angle, X-ray sensitivity, and quality of the multi-wavelength photometry. We also use the WISE and Spitzer photometry to identify a sample of 185 AGN selected purely through their mid-IR colours, most of which are not detected by ROSAT. Their redshifts and upper limits to X-ray luminosity and X-ray–to–optical flux ratios are even higher than for the new class of X-ray selected luminous type 2 AGN (AGN2); they are probably a natural extension of this sample. This unique dataset is important as a reference sample for future deep surveys in the NEP region, in particular for eROSITA and also for Euclid and SPHEREX. We predict that most of the absorbed distant AGN should be readily picked up by eROSITA, but they require sensitive mid-IR imaging to be recognized as optical counterparts. 

Abstract The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) has become a cornerstone of extragalactic astronomy. Since the last public catalog in 2015, a wealth of new imaging and spectroscopic data have been collected in the COSMOS field. This paper describes the collection, processing, and analysis of these new imaging data to produce a new reference photometric redshift catalog. Source detection and multiwavelength photometry are performed for 1.7 million sources across the 2 deg 2 of the COSMOS field, ∼966,000 of which are measured with all available broadband data using both traditional aperture photometric methods and a new profile-fitting photometric extraction tool, The Farmer , which we have developed. A detailed comparison of the two resulting photometric catalogs is presented. Photometric redshifts are computed for all sources in each catalog utilizing two independent photometric redshift codes. Finally, a comparison is made between the performance of the photometric methodologies and of the redshift codes to demonstrate an exceptional degree of self-consistency in the resulting photometric redshifts. The i < 21 sources have subpercent photometric redshift accuracy and even the faintest sources at 25 < i < 27 reach a precision of 5%. Finally, these results are discussed in the context of previous, current, and future surveys in the COSMOS field. Compared to COSMOS2015, it reaches the same photometric redshift precision at almost one magnitude deeper. Both photometric catalogs and their photometric redshift solutions and physical parameters will be made available through the usual astronomical archive systems (ESO Phase 3, IPAC-IRSA, and CDS).