The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) VI: The RACS-high 1 655.5 MHz images and catalogue

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

We have conducted a widefield, wideband, snapshot survey using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) referred to as the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS). RACS covers ≈ 90 % of the sky, with multiple observing epochs in three frequency bands sampling the ASKAP frequency range of 700–1 800 MHz. This paper describes the third major epoch at 1 655.5 MHz, RACS-high, and the subsequent imaging and catalogue data release. The RACS-high observations at 1 655.5 MHz are otherwise similar to the previously released RACS-mid (at 1 367.5 MHz) and were calibrated and imaged with minimal changes. From the 1 493 images covering the sky up to declination ≈ +48^∘ , we present a catalogue of 2 677 509 radio sources. The catalogue is constructed from images with a median root-mean-square noise of ≈ 195 x03BC Jy PSF ⁻¹ (point-spread function) and a median angular resolution of 11-0pt.8 × 8-0pt.1 . The overall reliability of the catalogue is estimated to be 99.18%, and we find a decrease in reliability as angular resolution improves. We estimate the brightness scale to be accurate to 10%, and the astrometric accuracy to be within ≈ 0-0pt.6 in right ascension and ≈ 0-0pt.7 in declination after correction of a systematic declination-dependent offset. All data products from RACS-high, including calibrated visibility datasets, images from individual observations, full-sensitivity mosaics, and the all-sky catalogue are available at the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive.