The Magellanic Clouds Photomtric Survey: The Small Magellanic Cloud Stellar Catalog and Extinction Map

We present our catalog of U, B, V, and I stellar photometry of the central 18sq. degree area of the Small Magellanic Cloud. We combine our data with the2MASS and DENIS catalogs to provide, when available, U through K_S data forstars. Internal and external astrometric and photometric tests using existingoptical photometry (U, B, and V from Massey's bright star catalog; B, V, and Ifrom the microlensing database of OGLE and I from the near-infrared sky surveyDENIS) are used to determine the observational uncertainties and identifysystematic errors. We fit stellar atmosphere models to the optical data tocheck the consistency of the photometry for individual stars across thepassbands and to estimate the line-of-sight extinction. Finally, we use theestimated line-of-sight extinctions to produce an extinction map across theSmall Magellanic Cloud and investigate the nature of extinction as a functionof stellar population.