The VST ATLAS Survey is a panoramic optical survey, which will complement the proposed VST and VISTA Hemisphere Surveys in the South. The initial aim of ATLAS is to survey 4500 deg² of the Southern Sky at high galactic latitudes to comparable depths to the SDSS in the North. The VST ATLAS will be the first step towards a panoramic digital survey of the Southern Sky in the optical bands. Science drivers and uses are:

• to determine the dark energy equation of state by detecting 'baryon wiggles' in the power-spectrum of ∼450000 z∼0.7 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs), using either photo-z from VST ATLAS + VHS imaging or spectroscopic redshifts via the new AAOmega instrument;
• to probe for dark energy including LRG z-space distortion, the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect and the dependence of QSO lensing on redshift;
• to colour select QSO candidates out to z∼7.

In addition, the VST ATLAS+AAOmega will feed VLT with rare galaxy and QSO targets for high resolution spectroscopy, constituting a new and uniquely powerful tool for survey cosmology.
For more information see the ATLAS home page.