The Dusty Galactic Center as Seen by SCUBA-2

We present new JCMT SCUBA-2 observations of the Galactic Center region from 355° < l < 5° and b < ±1°, covering 10 × 2 square degrees along the Galactic Plane to a depth of 43 mJy beam^-1 at 850 μm and 360 mJy beam^-1 at 450 μm. We describe the mapping strategy and reduction method used. We present ¹²CO(3-2) observations of selected regions in the field. We derive the molecular-line conversion factors (mJy beam^-1 per K km s^-1) at 850 and 450 μm, which are then used to obtain the amount of contamination in the continuum maps due to ¹²CO(3-2) emission in the 850 μm band. Toward the fields where the CO contamination has been accounted for, we present an 850 μm CO-corrected compact source catalog. Finally, we look for possible physical trends in the CO contamination with respect to column density, mass, and concentration. No trends were seen in the data despite the recognition of three contributors to CO contamination: opacity, shocks, and temperature, which would be expected to relate to physical conditions. These SCUBA-2 Galactic Center data and catalog are available via https://doi.org/10.11570/17.0009.