SURFACE BRIGHTNESS PROFILES OF DWARF GALAXIES. I. PROFILES AND STATISTICS

Here we re-examine the stellar disk profiles of 141 dwarfs: 96 dwarf irregulars (dIms), 26 Blue Compact Dwarfs (BCDs), and 19 Magellanic-type spirals (Sms). We fit single, double, or even triple exponential profiles in up to 11 passbands: GALEX FUV and NUV, ground-based UBVJHK and H alpha , and Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 mu m. We find that more luminous galaxies have brighter centers, larger inner and outer scale lengths, and breaks at larger radii; dwarf trends with M sub(B) extend to spirals. Outer Type II and III scale lengths may have weak trends with wavelength, but pure Type II inner scale lengths clearly decrease from the FUV to visible bands whereas Type III inner scale lengths increase with redder bands. This suggests the influence of different star formation histories on profile type, but nonetheless the break location is approximately the same in all passbands.