To be published in the Astronomical Journal, August 2003.

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Abstract. IRAS flux densities, redshifts, and infrared luminosities are reported for all sources identified in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS), a complete flux-limited survey of all extragalactic objects with total 60µm flux density greater than 5.24 Jy, covering the entire sky surveyed by IRAS at Galactic latitude |b| > 5°. The RBGS includes 629 objects, with a median (mean) sample redshift of 0.0082 (0.0126) and a maximum redshift of 0.0876. The RBGS supersedes the previous two-part IRAS Bright Galaxy Samples (hereafter BGS₁ + BGS₂), which were compiled before the final ("Pass 3") calibration of the IRAS Level1 Archive in May 1990. The RBGS also makes use of more accurate and consistent automated methods to measure the flux of objects with extended emission. The RBGS contains 39 objects which were not present in the BGS₁ + BGS₂, and 28 objects from the BGS₁ + BGS₂ have been dropped from RBGS because their revised 60 µm flux densities are not greater than 5.24 Jy. Comparison of revised flux measurements for sources in both surveys shows that most flux differences are in the range ~ 5 - 25%, although some faint sources at 12 µm - 25 µm differ by as much as a factor of 2. Basic properties of the RBGS sources are summarized, including estimated total infrared luminosities, as well as updates to cross-identifications with sources from optical galaxy catalogs established using the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). In addition, an atlas of images from the Digitized Sky Survey with overlays of the IRAS position uncertainty ellipse and annotated scale bars is provided for ease in visualizing the optical morphology in context with the angular and metric size of each object. The revised bolometric infrared luminosity function, (L_ir), for infrared bright galaxies in the local Universe remains best fit by a double power law, (L) L, with = -0.6 (± 0.1), and = -2.2 (± 0.1) below and above the "characteristic" luminosity L_ir^* ~ 10^10.5 L, respectively. A companion paper provides IRAS High Resolution (HIRES) processing of over 100 RBGS sources where improved spatial resolution often provides better IRAS source positions or allows for deconvolution of close galaxy pairs.

Key words: galaxies:general - infrared:general - infrared:sources

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• SAMPLE SELECTION AND DATA PROCESSING
• THE IRAS RBGS DATA
• Annotated Images from the Digitized Sky Survey
• Revisions from the Original BGS₁ and BGS₂
• DISCUSSION
• Comparison Between Revised and Previous Flux Density Measurements
• IRAS Flux Densities - Completeness
• Sky Coverage
• IRAS Colors
• Luminosity Function
• SUMMARY
• APPENDIX
• REFERENCES