The BaLROG project - I. Quantifying the influence of bars on the
  kinematics of nearby galaxies
  We present the BaLROG (Bars in Low Redshift Optical Galaxies) sample of 16
morphologically distinct barred spirals to characterise observationally the
influence of bars on nearby galaxies. Each galaxy is a mosaic of several
pointings observed with the IFU spectrograph SAURON leading to a tenfold
sharper spatial resolution (~100 pc) compared to ongoing IFU surveys. In this
paper we focus on the kinematic properties. We calculate the bar strength Qb
from classical torque analysis using 3.6 {\mu}m Spitzer (S4G) images, but also
develop a new method based solely on the kinematics. A correlation between the
two measurements is found and backed up by N-body simulations, verifying the
measurement of Qb . We find that bar strengths from ionised gas kinematics are
~2.5 larger than those measured from stellar kinematics and that stronger bars
have enhanced influence on inner kinematic features. We detect that stellar
angular momentum "dips" at 0.2$\pm$0.1 bar lengths and half of our sample
exhibits an anti-correlation of h3 - stellar velocity (v/{\sigma}) in these
central parts. An increased flattening of the stellar {\sigma} gradient with
increasing bar strength supports the notion of bar-induced orbit mixing. These
measurements set important constraints on the spatial scales, namely an
increasing influence in the central regions (0.1-0.5 bar lengths), revealed by
kinematic signatures due to bar-driven secular evolution in present day
galaxies.
