The KINGFISH project (Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel) is an imaging and spectroscopic survey of 61 nearby (d < 30 Mpc) galaxies, chosen to cover a wide range of galaxy properties and local interstellar medium (IS
M) environments found in the nearby Universe. Its broad goals are to characterize the ISM of present-day galaxies, the heating and cooling of their gaseous and dust components, and to better understand the physical processes linking star formation and the ISM. KINGFISH is a direct descendant of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), which produced complete Spitzer imaging and spectroscopic mapping and a comprehensive set of multi-wavelength ancillary observations for the sample. The Herschel imaging consists of complete maps for the galaxies at 70, 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 microns. The spectal line imaging of the principal atomic ISM cooling lines ([OI]63um, [OIII]88um, [NII]122,205um, and [CII]158um) covers the subregions in the centers and disks that already have been mapped in the mid-infrared with Spitzer. The KINGFISH and SINGS multi-wavelength datasets combined provide panchromatic mapping of the galaxies sufficient to resolve individual star-forming regions, and tracing the important heating and cooling channels of the ISM, across a wide range of local extragalactic ISM environments. This paper summarizes the scientific strategy for KINGFISH, the properties of the galaxy sample, the observing strategy, and data processing and products. It also presents a combined Spitzer and Herschel image atlas for the KINGFISH galaxies, covering the wavelength range 3.6 -- 500 microns. All imaging and spectroscopy data products will be released to the Herschel user generated product archives.
As part of a broader effort to characterize the population of star-forming galaxies in the local universe, we have carried out an H-alpha+[NII] imaging survey for an essentially volume-limited sample of galaxies within 11 Mpc of the Milky Way. This p
aper describes the design of the survey, the observation, data processing, and calibration procedures, and the characteristics of the galaxy sample. The main product of the paper is a catalog of integrated H-alpha fluxes, luminosities, and equivalent widths for the galaxies in the sample. We briefly discuss the completeness properties of the survey and compare the distribution of the sample and its star formation properties to other large H-alpha imaging surveys. These data form the foundation for a series of follow-up studies of the star formation properties of the local volume, and the properties and duty cycles of star formation bursts in dwarf galaxies.
