The SCUBA-2 "All-Sky" Survey

– 5 –1. Introduction: The JCMT Legacy SurveysThe James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is in the process of upgrading itsinstrument suite to include the new wide-field bolometer camera SCUBA-2 (the Sub-mmCommon-User Bolometer Array 2; Holland et al. 2006). The radically new set of detectorsat the heart of SCUBA-2 and its large instantaneous field of view (50 square arcminintes)gives SCUBA-2 a mapping speed some three orders of magnitude larger than its predecessorSCUBA. This vast increase in mapping speed will bring about a new era of wide-fieldsub-millimetre astronomy and finally brings about the possibility of deep (tenss of mJy)surveys encompassing significant fractions of the sky. Recognising the unique capabilitiesof SCUBA-2 and the new heterodyne array HARP-B (Smith et al. 2003) the JCMT Boardcalled upon the JCMT community to identify and propose an innovative programme oflarge-scale Legacy Surveys. The JCMT Legacy Survey Programme