The SIRTF Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic survey (SWIRE), the largest SIRTF Legacy program, is a wide-area, imaging survey to trace the evolution of dusty, starforming galaxies, evolved stellar populations, and AGN as a function of environment, from redshifts z∼3 to the current epoch. SWIRE will survey 7 high-latitude fields, totaling 60-65 sq. deg. in all 7 SIRTF bands: IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.6, 8µm and MIPS 24, 70, 160µm. Extensive modeling suggests that the Legacy Extragalactic Catalog may contain in excess of 2 million IR-selected galaxies, dominated by (1) ∼150,000 luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs: L F IR > 10 11 L ⊙) detected by MIPS (and significantly more detected by IRAC), ∼7,000 of these with z>2; (2) 1 million IRAC-detected early-type galaxies (∼ 2×10 5 with z > 1 and ∼10,000 with z > 2); and (3) ∼ 20,000 classical AGN detected with MIPS, plus significantly more dust-obscured QSO/AGN among the LIRGs. SWIRE will provide an unprecedented view of the evolution of galaxies, structure, and AGN. The key scientific goals of SWIRE are: (1) to determine the evolution of actively star-forming and passively evolving galaxies in order to understand the history of galaxy formation in the context of cosmic structure formation; (2) to determine the evolution of the spatial distribution and clustering of evolved galaxies, starbursts and AGN in the key redshift range, 0.5

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In this work we incorporate the newest ISO results on the mid-infrared spectral-energy-distributions (MIR SEDs) of galaxies into models for the number counts and redshift distributions of MIR surveys. A three-component model, with empirically determined MIR SED templates of (1) a cirrus/PDR component (2) a starburst component and (3) an AGN component, is developed for infrared (3-120 µm) SEDs of galaxies. The model includes a complete IRAS 25 µm selected sample of 1406 local galaxies (z ≤ 0.1; Shupe et al. 1998a). Results based on these 1406 spectra show that the MIR emission features cause significant effects on the redshift dependence of the K-corrections for fluxes in the WIRE 25 µm band and ISOCAM 15 µm band. This in turn will affect deep counts and redshift distributions in these two bands, as shown by the predictions of two evolution models (a luminosity evolution model with L ∝ (1 + z) 3 and a density evolution model with ρ ∝ (1 + z) 4 ). The dips-and-bumps on curves of MIR number counts, caused by the emission features, should be useful indicators of evolution mode. The strong emission features at ∼ 6-8 µm will help the detections of relatively high redshift (z ∼ 2) galaxies in MIR surveys. On the other hand, determinations of the evolutionary rate based on the slope of source counts, and studies on the large scale structures using the redshift distribution of MIR sources, will have to treat the effects of the MIR emission features carefully. We have also estimated a 15 µm local luminosity function from the predicted 15 µm fluxes of the 1406 galaxies using the bivariate (15 µm vs. 25 µm luminosities) method. This luminosity function will improve our understanding of the ISOCAM 15 µm surveys.