Near-infrared surface photometry of spiral galaxies

Abstract

We present $K'$-band surface photometry of a sample of 31 inclined Sa-Scd galaxies, together with additional $J$- and $H$-band data for four of them. In this first paper of a series, profiles are presented, together with global and isophotal parameters. Our profiles are compared to similar $B$, $R$ and $I$ data collected from other sources. Three galaxies exhibit previously unknown small bars in their center, while in five others, such bars may also be present. Four objects present a narrow elongated feature in their center aligned with their major axis, which could be an inward extension of the disk. A few galaxies display very thin spiral arms. Color-color diagrams indicate that the extinction inside the four galaxies for which we have $JHK'$ images is limited to $A_V < 2$.Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Supplements). 11 pages LaTeX with l-aa style file and 3 figures included. Figure 4 (35 pages of figures taking over 3.5 MB uuencoded gzipped tared) is available at ftp://ftp.iap.fr/pub/from_users/gam/PAPERS/hsm_fig4.u