The DIVING$^{3D}$ Survey -- Deep IFS View of Nuclei of Galaxies -- I.
  Definition and Sample Presentation
  We present the Deep Integral Field Spectrograph View of Nuclei of Galaxies
(DIVING$^{3D}$) survey, a seeing-limited optical 3D spectroscopy study of the
central regions of all 170 galaxies in the Southern hemisphere with B < 12.0
and |b| > 15 degrees. Most of the observations were taken with the Integral
Field Unit of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, at the Gemini South
telescope, but some are also being taken with the Southern Astrophysical
Research Telescope (SOAR) Integral Field Spectrograph. The DIVING$^{3D}$ survey
was designed for the study of nuclear emission-line properties, circumnuclear
(within scales of hundreds of pc) emission-line properties, stellar and gas
kinematics and stellar archaeology. The data have a combination of high spatial
and spectral resolution not matched by previous surveys and will result in
significant contributions for studies related to, for example, the statistics
of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, the ionization mechanisms in
Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-Line Regions, the nature of transition objects,
among other topics.
