The Magellanic Clouds photometric survey: The Large Magellanic Cloud stellar catalog and extinction map

We present our catalog of U, B, V, and I stellar photometry of the central 64 deg ² area of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Internal and external astrometric and photometric tests using existing optical photometry (U, B, and V from Massey's bright star catalog and I from the near-infrared sky survey DENIS) are used to confirm our observational uncertainty estimates. We fit stellar atmosphere models to the optical data to check the consistency of the photometry for individual stars across the passbands and to estimate the line-of-sight extinction. Finally, we use the estimated line-of-sight extinctions to produce an extinction map across the Large Magellanic Cloud, confirm the variation of extinction as a function of stellar population, and produce a simple geometric model for the extinction as a function of stellar population.