Photometric surveys of the galactic bulge and long bar

Abstract

The Galactic bar and box/peanut bulge can be studied in an unrivaled manner, star-by-star, with detailed chemical information and full 3D kinematics. Because of intervening dust this is greatly facilitated by the availability of wide field deep NIR photometric surveys. Here we summarize recent results on the threedimensional structure of the bulge and the long bar region, based on 2MASS, UKIDSS, and particularly the ongoing VVV survey. We also summarize results from dynamical models for the Galactic bulge constructed with the Made-to- Measure method.