2002PASP..114.1349X

In this paper, we present the methodology of photometric redshift determination with the BATC 15 color system by using the hyperz program. Both simulated galaxies and real galaxies with known redshifts were used to estimate the accuracy of redshifts inferred from multicolor photometry. From the test with simulated galaxies, the uncertainty in the inferred redshifts is about 0.02-0.03 for a given range of photometric uncertainty of 0.05-0.10 mag. The results with the 27 real galaxies are in good agreement with the simulated ones. The advantage of using the BATC intermediate-band system to derive redshift is clear after comparison with the UBVRI broadband system. The accuracy in redshift determination with the BATC system is mainly affected by the selection of filters and the photometric uncertainties in the observation. When we take the limiting magnitudes of the 15 filters into account, we find that redshift can be determined with good accuracy for galaxies with redshifts less than 0.5, using only filters with central wavelengths shorter than 6000 Å.