The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope ( UKIRT ) Widefield Infrared Survey for Fe ^ { + } ( UWIFE ) is a 180 deg ^ { 2 } imaging survey of the first Galactic quadrant ( 7 \mbox { $ { } ^ { \circ } $ } < l < 62 \mbox { $ { } ^ { \circ } $ } ; |b| \la 1 \aas@@fstack { \circ } 5 ) using a narrow–band filter centered on the [ Fe II ] 1.644 \mu \mathrm { m } emission line .
The [ Fe II ] 1.644 \mu \mathrm { m } emission is a good tracer of dense , shock–excited gas , and the survey will probe violent environments around stars : star-forming regions , evolved stars , and supernova remnants , among others .
The UWIFE survey is designed to complement the existing UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for \mathrm { H } _ { 2 } ( UWISH2 ; 28 ) .
The survey will also complement existing broad-band surveys .
The observed images have a nominal 5 \sigma detection limit of 18.7 mag for point sources , with the median seeing of 0.83″ .
For extended sources , we estimate surface brightness limit of 8.1 \times 10 ^ { -20 } W m ^ { -2 } arcsec ^ { -2 } .
In this paper , we present the overview and preliminary results of this survey .