Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Images Research Articles

Morphological Classification of Infrared Galaxies Based on WISE

This study introduces a novel convolutional neural network, the WISE Galaxy Classification Network (WGC), for classifying spiral and elliptical galaxies using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) images. WGC attains an accuracy of 89.03%, surpassing the combined use of K-means or SVM with the Color–Color method in more accurately identifying galaxy morphologies. The enhanced variant, WGC_mag, integrates magnitude parameters with image features, further boosting the accuracy to 89.89%. The research also delves into the criteria for galaxy classification, discovering that WGC primarily categorizes dust-rich images as elliptical galaxies, corresponding to their lower star formation rates, and classifies less dusty images as spiral galaxies. The paper explores the consistency and complementarity of WISE infrared images with SDSS optical images in galaxy morphology classification. The SDSS Galaxy Classification Network (SGC), trained on SDSS images, achieved an accuracy of 94.64%. The accuracy reached 99.30% when predictions from SGC and WGC were consistent. Leveraging the complementarity of features in WISE and SDSS images, a novel variant of a classifier, namely the Multi-band Galaxy Morphology Integrated Classifier, has been developed. This classifier elevates the overall prediction accuracy to 95.39%. Lastly, the versatility of WGC was validated in other data sets. On the HyperLEDA data set, the distinction between elliptical galaxies and Sc, Scd and Sd spiral galaxies was most pronounced, achieving an accuracy of 90%, surpassing the classification results of the Galaxy Zoo 2 labeled WISE data set. This research not only demonstrates the effectiveness of WISE images in galaxy morphology classification but also represents an attempt to integrate multi-band astronomical data to enhance understanding of galaxy structures and evolution.

The IRX–β relation in kpc-sized star-forming regions in nearby galaxies

ABSTRACT The effect of dust attenuation on a galaxy’s light depends on a number of physical properties, such as geometry and dust composition, both of which can vary across the faces of galaxies. To investigate this variation, we continue analysis on star-forming regions in 29 galaxies studied previously. We analyse these regions using Swift/UV Optical Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer images, as well as Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory emission line maps to constrain the relationship between the infrared excess (IRX) and the ultraviolet spectral index, β, for each star-forming region. This relationship can be used to constrain which dust attenuation law is appropriate for the region. We find that the value of Dn(4000) for a region is correlated with both IRX and β, and that the gas-phase metallicity is strongly correlated with the IRX. This correlation between metallicity and IRX suggests that regardless of aperture, metal-rich regions have steeper attenuation curves. We also find that integrated galactic light follows nearly the same IRX–β relationship as that found for kpc-sized star-forming regions. This similarity may suggest that the attenuation law followed by the galaxy is essentially the same as that followed by the regions, although the relatively large size of our star-forming regions complicates this interpretation because optical opacity and attenuation curves have been observed to vary within individual galaxies.

Deep Learning Applications Based on WISE Infrared Data: Classification of Stars, Galaxies and Quasars

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has detected hundreds of millions of sources over the entire sky. However, classifying them reliably is a great challenge due to degeneracies in WISE multicolor space and low detection levels in its two longest-wavelength bandpasses. In this paper, the deep learning classification network, IICnet (Infrared Image Classification network), is designed to classify sources from WISE images to achieve a more accurate classification goal. IICnet shows good ability on the feature extraction of the WISE sources. Experiments demonstrate that the classification results of IICnet are superior to some other methods; it has obtained 96.2% accuracy for galaxies, 97.9% accuracy for quasars, and 96.4% accuracy for stars, and the Area Under Curve of the IICnet classifier can reach more than 99%. In addition, the superiority of IICnet in processing infrared images has been demonstrated in the comparisons with VGG16, GoogleNet, ResNet34, MobileNet, EfficientNetV2, and RepVGG-fewer parameters and faster inference. The above proves that IICnet is an effective method to classify infrared sources.

A multiwavelength study of the IRAS 23139+5939 (G111.256−0.770) star-forming site and its relation to Sh2-157

ABSTRACTThe far-infrared source IRAS 23139+5939 (G111.25−0.77) is a well-studied massive star-forming region at the centre of a dense molecular clump. It is associated with a low-luminosity and variable methanol maser, a number of water maser clusters, and several compact H ii regions. We present new sub-arcsec-resolution broad- and narrow-band near- and mid-infrared calibrated images. These were analysed together with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer images and longer wavelength published data. We establish that IRAS 23139+5939 is a multiple massive young stellar object (YSO) with a spectral energy distribution characteristic of a Class I object. Its deeply embedded (AV = 21) central YSOs have a total luminosity of 3 × 104 L⊙ and a mass of 16 M⊙. We find several small knots of H2 emission in its vicinity, bordering a large CO outflow driven by the protostar. Their distribution suggests the presence of several YSOs with jets. A young embedded stellar cluster of size ∼40 arcsec (0.65 pc) is found around the massive protostar, with evidence of protoplanetary discs in more than 50 per cent of the likely members. We also report a large arc of H2 emission surrounding a nearby H α-emission star displaying a large infrared excess, with a total luminosity of 1.5 × 103 L⊙. Gaia Data Release 3 and very long baseline interferometry parallaxes indicate a common distance of 3.34 kpc to these two YSOs, a distance similar to that to Sh2-157, a nearby massive star-forming region, which appears connected to IRAS 23139+5939 by a warm dust filament.

UnTimely: a Full-sky, Time-domain unWISE Catalog

We present the unTimely Catalog, a deep time-domain catalog of detections based on Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and NEOWISE observations spanning the 2010 through 2020 time period. Detections are extracted from “time-resolved unWISE coadds,” which stack together each biannual sky pass of WISE imaging to create a set of ∼16 all-sky maps (per band), each much deeper and cleaner than individual WISE exposures. unTimely incorporates the W1 (3.4 μm) and W2 (4.6 μm) channels, meaning that our data set effectively consists of ∼32 full-sky unWISE catalogs. We run the crowdsource crowded-field point-source photometry pipeline (Schlafly et al. 2018) on each epochal coadd independently, with low detection thresholds: S/N = 4.0 (2.5) in W1 (W2). In total, we tabulate and publicly release 23.5 billion (19.9 billion) detections at W1 (W2). unTimely is ∼1.3 mag deeper than the WISE/NEOWISE Single Exposure Source Tables near the ecliptic, with further enhanced depth toward higher ecliptic latitudes. The unTimely Catalog is primarily designed to enable novel searches for faint, fast-moving objects, such as Y dwarfs and/or late-type (T/Y) subdwarfs in the Milky Way’s thick disk or halo. unTimely will also facilitate other time-domain science applications, such as all-sky studies of quasar variability at mid-infrared wavelengths over a decade-long time baseline.

WISE Green Objects (WGOs): The Massive Star Candidates in the Whole Galactic Plane (∣b∣ < 2°)

Massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) play a crucial role in star formation. Given that MYSOs were previously identified based on the extended structure and the observational data for them is limited, screening the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) objects showing green features (for the common coding of the 4.6 μm band as the green channel in three-color composite WISE images) will yield more MYSO candidates. Using WISE images in the whole Galactic plane (0° < l < 360° and ∣b∣ < 2°), we identified sources with strong emissions at the 4.6 μm band, then according to morphological features divided them into three groups. We present a catalog of 2135 WISE Green Objects (WGOs). 264 WGOs have an extended structure. 1366 WGOs show compact green features but without extended structure. 505 WGOs have neither extended structure nor green features, but the intensity at 4.6 μm is numerically at least 4.5 times that of 3.4 μm. According to the analysis of the coordinates of WGOs, we find WGOs are mainly distributed in ∣l∣ < 60°, coincident with the position of the giant molecular clouds in ∣l∣ > 60°. Matching results with various masers show that those three groups of WGOs are at different evolutionary stages. After crossmatching WGOs with published YSO survey catalogs, we infer that ∼50% of WGOs are samples of newly discovered YSOs. In addition, 1260 WGOs are associated with Hi-GAL sources, according to physical parameters estimated by spectral energy distribution fitting, of which 231 are classified as robust MYSOs and 172 as candidate MYSOs.

Comparative Study of Dust Properties around White Dwarf PG 1225-079 in IRIS, AKARI and WISE Data

In this work, dust properties around the White Dwarf PG 1225-079 located at RA (J2000): 12h 27m 47.35s, DEC(J2000): -08° 14’ 37.97” is studied extensively using the publicly available data from Improved Reprocessing of IRAS Survey (IRIS), AKARI infrared survey and Wide field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The bipolar dust structure hardly resolved in IRIS (60 μm and 100 μm) is clearly resolved in AKARI (90 μm and 140 μm) and WISE (12 μm and 22 μm) images. The dust color temperature and dust mass are calculated from the infrared flux density. The average value of dust color temperature in isolated dust structure is 27.57 K for IRIS (I1). For isolated upper and lower dust clouds the average temperatures are; 22.64 K and 22.63 K for AKARI (A1 and A2), 295.34 K and 296.85 K in WISE (W1 and W2) data. A wide range of temperatures suggests the bipolar dust structure is dynamically active. The mass of dust is found to be 3.44 × 1025 kg in IRIS (I1), 1.82 × 1026 kg and 5.89×1026 kg in two bipolar regions in AKARI (A1 and A2) and 1.12 ×1026 kg and 1.14×1026 kg in WISE (W1 and W2). A good relation is found between the infrared flux in all survey data with r2 value 0.83 in IRIS (I1) and more than 0.90 in AKARI (A1, A2) and WISE (W1, W2) data. SIMBAD database explore some sources including Supernova Remnants nearby the dust which might be the progenitor of dust as well as the contributor of energetic radiation. The Gaussian modeling of temperature is found to be deviated from normal shape. The contour plot of dust color temperature and dust mass shows non uniform variation among the IRIS, AKARI and WISE survey. The relation between infrared flux, dust color temperature and dust mass within the dust clouds are presented.

Six-year Static Sky unWISE Coadds

Abstract We present and publicly release a set of deep, full-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) coadds built from WISE and NEOWISE images spanning from early 2010 through late 2018. This data release uniformly incorporates six years of WISE and NEOWISE exposures at 3.4 μm (W1) and 4.6 μm (W2). These inertial “unWISE” stacks allow for detection of roughly a billion stars and galaxies fainter than the AllWISE catalogs sensitivity limit. Importantly, our six-year unWISE coadds, in combination with the crowdsource cataloging software, were used to perform deep source detection/deblending for CatWISE2020.

Detection and correlation of geosynchronous objects in NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer images

In this paper, we present an algorithm developed to detect Earth-orbiting object streaks within astronomical images. The NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) database of imagery was selected, in order to assess the viability of infrared wavelengths for the detection and analysis of satellite, rocket body and debris objects. The algorithm was designed to scan a high volume of images for the presence of streaks and then to correlate these to known Earth-orbiting objects without the use of a-priori knowledge of position or orbit parameters of the detected object. As part of the streak analysis process, the algorithm performed a photometric characterisation of the detected objects in all four infrared bands observed by the WISE satellite. The performance of the photometric analysis module was validated against known stellar magnitudes as well as the results of previous published research.

The unWISE Catalog: Two Billion Infrared Sources from Five Years of WISE Imaging

We present the unWISE Catalog, containing the positions and fluxes of roughly two billion objects observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) over the full sky. The unWISE Catalog has two advantages over the existing WISE catalog (AllWISE): first, it is based on significantly deeper imaging, and second, it features improved modeling of crowded regions. The deeper imaging used in the unWISE Catalog comes from the coaddition of all publicly available 3$-$5 micron WISE imaging, including that from the ongoing NEOWISE-Reactivation mission, thereby increasing the total exposure time by a factor of 5 relative to AllWISE. At these depths, even at high Galactic latitudes many sources are blended with their neighbors; accordingly, the unWISE analysis simultaneously fits thousands of sources to obtain accurate photometry. Our new catalog detects sources at 5-sigma roughly 0.7 magnitudes fainter than the AllWISE catalog and more accurately models millions of faint sources in the Galactic plane, enabling a wealth of Galactic and extragalactic science. In particular, relative to AllWISE, unWISE doubles the number of galaxies detected between redshifts 0 and 1 and triples the number between redshifts 1 and 2, cataloging more than half a billion galaxies over the whole sky.

Mid-infrared Excess from the West Hot Spot of the Radio Galaxy Pictor A Unveiled by WISE

Abstract Mid-infrared properties are reported of the west hot spot of the radio galaxy Pictor A with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The mid-infrared counterpart to the hot spot, WISE J051926.26−454554.1, is listed in the AllWISE source catalog. The source was detected in all four of the WISE photometric bands. A comparison between the WISE and radio images reinforces the physical association of the WISE source to the hot spot. The WISE flux density of the source was carefully evaluated. A close investigation of the multi-wavelength synchrotron spectral energy distribution from the object reveals a mid-infrared excess at the wavelength of μm with a statistical significance of over the simple power-law extrapolation from the synchrotron radio spectrum. The excess is reinforced by single and double cutoff power-law modeling of the radio-to-optical spectral energy distribution. The synchrotron cutoff frequency of the main and excess components was evaluated as Hz and Hz, respectively. From the cutoff frequency, the magnetic field of the emission region was constrained as a function of the region size. In order to interpret the excess component, an electron population different from the main one dominating the observed radio spectrum is necessary. The excess emission is proposed to originate in a substructure within the hot spot, in which the magnetic field is a factor of a few stronger than that in the minimum-energy condition. The relation of the mid-infrared excess to the X-ray emission is briefly discussed.

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

Abstract We have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3–5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging—a total of ∼8 million exposures in each band—from ∼37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ∼3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacy Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.

A 6.7 GHz Methanol Maser Survey at High Galactic Latitudes

Abstract We performed a systematic 6.7 GHz Class II methanol maser survey using the Shanghai Tianma Radio Telescope toward targets selected from the all-sky Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) point catalog. In this paper, we report the results from the survey of those at high Galactic latitudes, i.e., 2°. Of 1473 selected WISE point sources at high latitude, 17 point positions that were actually associated with 12 sources were detected with maser emission, reflecting the rarity (1%–2%) of methanol masers in the region away from the Galactic plane. Out of the 12 sources, 3 are detected for the first time. The spectral energy distribution at infrared bands shows that these new detected masers occur in the massive star-forming regions. Compared to previous detections, the methanol maser changes significantly in both spectral profiles and flux densities. The infrared WISE images show that almost all of these masers are located in the positions of the bright WISE point sources. Compared to the methanol masers at the Galactic plane, these high-latitude methanol masers provide good tracers for investigating the physics and kinematics around massive young stellar objects, because they are believed to be less affected by the surrounding cluster environment.

The First Brown Dwarf Discovered by the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project

Abstract The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a powerful tool for finding nearby brown dwarfs and searching for new planets in the outer solar system, especially with the incorporation of NEOWISE and NEOWISE-Reactivation data. However, so far, searches for brown dwarfs in WISE data have yet to take advantage of the full depth of the WISE images. To efficiently search this unexplored space via visual inspection, we have launched a new citizen science project, called “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9,” which asks volunteers to examine short animations composed of difference images constructed from time-resolved WISE coadds. We report the first new substellar object discovered by this project, WISEA J110125.95+540052.8, a T5.5 brown dwarf located approximately 34 pc from the Sun with a total proper motion of ∼0.″7 . WISEA J110125.95+540052.8 has a WISE W2 magnitude of our sensitivity to this source demonstrates the ability of citizen scientists to identify moving objects via visual inspection that are 0.9 mag fainter than the W2 single-exposure sensitivity, a threshold that has limited prior motion-based brown dwarf searches with WISE.

Mid-infrared dust in two nearby radio galaxies, NGC 1316 (Fornax A) and NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36)

Most radio galaxies are hosted by giant gas-poor ellipticals, but some contain significant amounts of dust, which is likely to be of external origin. In order to characterize the mid-IR properties of two of the most nearby and brightest merger-remnant radio galaxies of the Southern hemisphere, NGC 1316 (Fornax A) and NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36), we used observations with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 micron and Spitzer mid-infrared spectra. By applying a resolution-enhancement technique, new WISE images were produced at angular resolutions ranging from 2.6" to 5.5". Global measurements were performed in the four WISE bands, and stellar masses and star-formation rates were estimated using published scaling relations. Two methods were used to uncover the distribution of dust, one relying on two-dimensional fits to the 3.4 micron images to model the starlight, and the other one using a simple scaling and subtraction of the 3.4 micron images to estimate the stellar continuum contribution to the emission in the 12 and 22 micron bands. The two galaxies differ markedly in their mid-IR properties. The 3.4 micron brightness distribution can be well represented by the superposition of two Sersic models in NGC 1316 and by a Sersic model and an exponential disk in NGC 612. The WISE colors of NGC 1316 are typical of those of early-type galaxies; those of NGC 612 are in the range found for star-forming galaxies. From the 22 micron luminosity, we infer a star-formation rate of about 0.7 solar masses per year in NGC 1316 and about 7 solar masses per year in NGC 612. Spitzer spectroscopy shows that the 7.7-to-11.3 micron PAH line ratio is significantly lower in NGC 1316 than in NGC 612. The WISE images reveal resolved emission from dust in the central 1'-2' of the galaxies. (Abridged)

WISE morphological study of Wolf-Rayet nebulae

We present a morphological study of nebulae around Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars using archival narrow-band optical and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) infrared images. The comparison among WISE images in different bands and optical images proves to be a very efficient procedure to identify the nebular emission from WR nebulae, and to disentangle it from that of the ISM material along the line of sight. In particular, WR nebulae are clearly detected in the WISE W4 band at 22 $\mu$m. Analysis of available mid-IR Spitzer spectra shows that the emission in this band is dominated by thermal emission from dust spatially coincident with the thin nebular shell or most likely with the leading edge of the nebula. The WR nebulae in our sample present different morphologies that we classified into well defined WR bubbles (bubble ${\cal B}$-type nebulae), clumpy and/or disrupted shells (clumpy/disrupted ${\cal C}$-type nebulae), and material mixed with the diffuse medium (mixed ${\cal M}$-type nebulae). The variety of morphologies presented by WR nebulae shows a loose correlation with the central star spectral type, implying that the nebular and stellar evolutions are not simple and may proceed according to different sequences and time-lapses. We report the discovery of an obscured shell around WR35 only detected in the infrared.

E-BOSS: An Extensive stellar BOw Shock Survey

Context. Stellar bow shocks have been studied not only observationally, but also theoretically since the late 1980s. Only a few catalogues of them exist. The bow shocks show emission along all the electromagnetic spectrum, but they are detected more easily in infrared wavelengths. The release of new and high-quality infrared data eases the discovery and subsequent study of new objects. Aims. We search stellar bow-shock candidates associated with nearby runaway stars, and gather them together with those found elsewhere, to enlarge the list of the E-BOSS first release. We aim to characterize the bow-shock candidates and provide a database suitable for statistical studies. We investigate the low-frequency radio emission at the position of the bow-shock features, that can contribute to further studies of high-energy emission from these objects. Methods. We considered samples from different literature sources and searched for bow-shaped structures associated with stars in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) images. We looked for each bow-shock candidate on centimeter radio surveys. Results. We reunited 45 bow-shock candidates and generated composed WISE images to show the emission in different infrared bands. Among them there are new sources, previously studied objects, and bow shocks found serendipitously. Five bow shocks show evidence of radio emission. Conclusions. Stellar bow shocks constitute an active field with open questions and enormous amounts of data to be analyzed. Future research at all wavelengths databases, and use of instruments like Gaia, will provide a more complete picture of these objects. For instance, infrared spectral energy distributions can give information about physical parameters of the bow shock matter. In addition, dedicated high-sensitivity radio observations can help to understand the radio-$\gamma$ connection.

HERBIG-HARO OBJECTS AND MID-INFRARED OUTFLOWS IN THE VELA C MOLECULAR CLOUD

We have performed a deep [SII]6717/6731 wide field Herbig-Haro (HH) object survey toward the Vela C molecular cloud with a sky coverage of about 2 deg2. In total, 18 new HH objects, HH 1090-1107, are discovered and the two previously known HH objects, HH 73-74, are also detected in our [SII] images. We also present an investigation of mid-infrared outflows in the Vela C molecular cloud using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer images taken from AllWISE data release. Using the method suggested by Zhang & Wang, eleven extended green objects (EGOs) are identified to be the mid-infrared outflows, including 6 new mid-infrared outflows that have not been detected previously at other wavelengths and 5 mid-infrared counterparts of the HH objects detected in this work. Using the AllWISE Source Catalog and the source classification scheme suggested by Koenig et al., we have identified 56 young stellar object (YSO) candidates in the Vela C molecular cloud. The possible driving sources of the HH objects and EGOs are discussed based on the morphology of HH objects and EGOs and the locations of HH objects, EGOs and YSO candidates. Finally we associate 12 HH objects and five EGOs with 10 YSOs and YSO candidates. The median length of the outflows in Vela C is 0.35pc and the outflows seem to be oriented randomly.

WISEDETECTIONS OF DUST IN THE HABITABLE ZONES OF PLANET-BEARING STARS

We use data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) all-sky release to explore the incidence of warm dust in the habitable zones around exoplanet-host stars. Dust emission at 12 and/or 22 microns (T(sub dust) approx.300 and/or approx.150 K) traces events in the terrestrial planet zones; its existence implies replenishment by evaporation of comets or collisions of asteroids, possibly stirred by larger planets. Of the 591 planetary systems (728 extrasolar planets) in the Exoplanet Encyclopedia as of 2012 January 31, 350 are robustly detected by WISE at > or = 5(sigma) level. We perform detailed photosphere subtraction using tools developed for Spitzer data and visually inspect all the WISE images to confirm bona fide point sources. We find nine planet-bearing stars show dust excess emission at 12 and/or 22 microns at > or = 3(sigma) level around young, main-sequence, or evolved giant stars. Overall, our results yield an excess incidence of approx.2.6% for stars of all evolutionary stages, but approx.1% for planetary debris disks around main-sequence stars. Besides recovering previously known warm systems, we identify one new excess candidate around the young star UScoCTIO 108.

CONSTRUCTING AWISEHIGH RESOLUTION GALAXY ATLAS

After eight months of continuous observations, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mapped the entire sky at 3.4 {\mu}m, 4.6 {\mu}m, 12 {\mu}m and 22 {\mu}m. We have begun a dedicated WISE High Resolution Galaxy Atlas (WHRGA) project to fully characterize large, nearby galaxies and produce a legacy image atlas and source catalogue. Here we summarize the deconvolution technique used to significantly improve the spatial resolution of WISE imaging, specifically designed to study the internal anatomy of nearby galaxies. As a case study, we present results for the galaxy NGC 1566, comparing the WISE super-resolution image processing to that of Spitzer, GALEX and ground-based imaging. The is the first paper in a two part series; results for a much larger sample of nearby galaxies is presented in the second paper.