The images and catalogs available via this portal and scientific archive were acquired as part of a wide-field optical imaging survey of the globular cluster (GC) populations of a sample of spiral, S0, and elliptical galaxies carried out by K.L. Rhode and collaborators. Funding for various stages of the survey was provided by a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Fellowship, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship award (AST-0302095), and an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award (AST-0847109) to KLR.

The galaxies included in the survey were chosen to span a range of morphological types and luminosities and to be located within a variety of environments. The imaging data were used to select and study the GCs around each galaxy in order to measure the total number of GCs (N_GC), the specific frequency of the GC system (N_GC normalized by the V-band luminosity or stellar mass of the parent galaxy), the radial distribution of the GCs around the galaxy, and the broadband color distribution of the GC system, including (when possible) the fraction of blue or red GCs and the color gradient within the system. The goal of the survey was to systematically apply the same imaging techniques to each galaxy and then to use the results to help quantify whether and how global GC system properties correlate with the host galaxy properties. The survey results can also be used for follow-up spectroscopic studies of the GC kinematics in each galaxy and the mass distributions of the galaxies and for studies of X-ray source populations (e.g., low-mass X-ray binaries) associated with GCs in giant galaxies.

Results for most of the individual survey galaxies were published in a series of papers (listed below) while the survey was still underway, and the results and analysis of the full survey data will be published in Rhode et al., “A Wide-field Imaging Survey of the Globular Cluster Systems of Giant Galaxies: Bayesian Analysis of the Final Survey Results” (2025, in preparation). Various other follow-up studies (e.g., spectroscopy of GC candidates, X-ray studies, spatial distribution studies) are also published in the literature (e.g., Maccarone et al. 2007, Dowell et al. 2014, Rhode 2012, Hargis & Rhode 2014).

List of main survey publications:
> Hargis & Rhode 2014 ApJ, 796, 62
> Hargis & Rhode 2012 AJ, 144, 164
> Young et al. 2012 AJ, 144, 103
> Hargis et al. 2011 ApJ, 738, 113
> Rhode et al. 2010 AJ, 140, 430
> Rhode et al. 2007 AJ, 134, 1403
> Rhode, Zepf, & Santos 2005 ApJ, 630, L21
> Rhode & Zepf 2004 AJ, 127, 302
> Rhode & Zepf 2003 AJ, 126, 2307
> Rhode & Zepf 2001 AJ, 121, 210

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