SHARKS (Southern H-ATLAS Regions Ks-band Survey; IP: Helmut Dannerbauer) is a deep near-infrared survey of a 300-square-degree region of the sky being carried out with the VISTA telescope and its VIRCAM instrument at ESO (European Southern Observatory in Chile) in the Ks-band (at 2 micrometer). With SHARKS we expect to detect about 20-30 million galaxies, mostly in the distant universe, representing a quantum leap with respect to previous surveys. In combination with results from other far-infrared surveys with instruments on-board of satellites such as Herschel and WISE, and in the radio with LOFAR and ASKAP, it will provide a new and detailed view of the formation and subsequent evolutionary stages of galaxies in the distant universe. Moreover, in the near future, SHARKS results will provide essential support for observations with facilities such as LSST and Euclid expecting to revolutionize the understanding of the early universe. The fact that a researcher from a Spanish institute is the Principal Investigator of an observational project of this dimension as SHARKS represents a unique opportunity to strengthen the role of Spanish astronomy in on-going large astrophysical projects and therefore giving Spain high visibility at international level. The approved funding is essential to complete the tasks of data processing and to create the tools that will make the results of this project available to the scientific community, thus maximizing the scientific exploitation and enabling a high impact of the project.

 http://research.iac.es/proyecto/sharks/pages/en/home.php