//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13071 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/03/20 12:12:39 GMT FROM: Jamie A. Kennea at PSU/Swift-XRT C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), M. M. Chester (PSU), V. D'Elia (ASDC), P. A. Evans (U Leicester), B.P. Gompertz (U Leicester), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara), J. A. Kennea (PSU), H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester), V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester), J. P. Osborne (U Leicester), C. Pagani (U Leicester), K. L. Page (U Leicester), J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), P. Romano (INAF-IASFPA), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), M. H. Siegel (PSU), R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester), C. A. Swenson (PSU) and E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/ORAU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 11:56:15 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120320A (trigger=518200). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 212.538, +8.685 which is RA(J2000) = 14h 10m 09s Dec(J2000) = +08d 41' 06" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed what appears to be a series of peaks with a total duration of about 40 sec. The peak count rate was ~500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 11:59:07.3 UT, 171.7 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 212.5177, 8.6969 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 14h 10m 04.25s Dec(J2000) = +08d 41' 49.0" with an uncertainty of 2.8 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 83 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received; the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. We cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density consistent with the Galactic value of 2.02 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 174 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 84% of the XRT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the XRT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.03. Burst Advocate for this burst is C. B. Markwardt (Craig.Markwardt AT nasa.gov). Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13072 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: MASTER optical observations DATE: 12/03/20 13:09:04 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk Irkutsk State University E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, V.Kornilov, D.Kuvshinov, A.Belinski, N.Tyurina, N.Shatskiy, P.Balanutsa, D.Zimnukhov, A.Kuznetsov, V.V.Chazov, A.Kuznetsov, A.Sankovich Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnich, A. Popov, A. Bourdanov, A. Punanova Ural Federal University Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE) Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Blagoveschensk was pointed to the GRB120320A (Markwardt et al., GCN 13071) 32 sec s after notice time and 156 sec after GRB time at 2012-03-20 11:58:51.633 UT. On our first (30s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT BAT error-box (Markwardt et al., GCN 13071). The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 15.4 mag . The low limit is due to high zenit distance (8 degrees up to horizont). The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13075 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 12/03/20 14:48:36 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans, M.R. Goad and J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 995 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT images for GRB 120320A, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 212.51794, +8.69646 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 14h 10m 4.31s Dec (J2000): +08d 41' 47.3" with an uncertainty of 2.2 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest position can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position enhancement is described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401) and Evans et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177). This circular was automatically generated, and is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13077 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Gemini-N and UKIRT observations DATE: 12/03/20 15:33:26 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at U.Leicester A. J. Levan (U. Warwick), N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), T. Wold (JACH) and R. Mason (Gemini) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We obtained observations of the field of GRB 120320A (Markwardt et al. GCN13071) with both Gemini-N/GMOS in i and z, and UKIRT/WFCAM in J, H and K. Our first observations began approximately 30 minutes after the burst, and continued for a further 2 hours. Within the refined X-ray error circle (Beardmore et al. GCN 13075) we detect a very faint source in our GMOS imaging at position (accuracy ~0.5"): RA(2000)=14:10:04.28 dec(2000)=08:41:47.9 The source has i~25.7+/-0.3 and z~25.3+/-0.3. It is undetected in the UKIRT imaging to preliminary limits of J>21.6, H>20.0 and K>19.5. This source could therefore be related to either the afterglow or the host galaxy of GRB 120320A, but at the current time we cannot make any statements about fading. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13078 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A, Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 12/03/20 16:10:19 GMT FROM: Jay R. Cummings at NASA/GSFC/Swift W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), E. E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), G. Sato (ISAS), M. Stamatikos (OSU), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-240 to T+512 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120320A (trigger #518200) (Markwardt, et al., GCN Circ. 13071). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 212.517, 8.682 deg which is RA(J2000) = 14h 10m 04.0s Dec(J2000) = +08d 40' 54.9" with an uncertainty of 1.6 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 60%. The mask-weighted light curve shows two overlapping weak peaks. There is possible low-level emission out to approximately T+90 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 25.74 +- 3.55 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-0.01 to T+29.86 sec is best fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff. This fit gives a photon index 0.31 +- 0.95, and Epeak of 62.8 +- 23.4 keV (chi squared 57.5 for 56 d.o.f.). For this model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 5.9 +- 1.6 x 10^-07 erg/cm2 and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+24.10 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 0.5 +- 0.2 ph/cm2/sec. A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index of 1.58 +- 0.18 (chi squared 64.7 for 57 d.o.f.). All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. The results of the batgrbproduct analysis are available at http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_s/518200/BA/ [GCN OPS NOTE(20mar12): The subject line was fixed (added the missing 0). Appreciateion goes to D.Fox for pointing out the omission.] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13079 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 12/03/21 00:12:05 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), M.C. Stroh (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), O.M. Littlejohns (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), G. Stratta (ASDC) and C.B. Markwardt report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 7.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 120320A (Markwardt et al. GCN Circ. 13071), from 156 s to 24.3 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 8 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (taken while Swift was slewing), with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Beardmore et al. (GCN. Circ 13075). The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=0.36 (+0.13, -0.15). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.0 (+0.5, -0.4). The best-fitting absorption column is 1.7 (+1.4, -1.1) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 2.0 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.8 x 10^-11 (5.3 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 1.7 (+1.4, -1.1) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 2.0 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 2.1 sigma Photon index: 2.0 (+0.5, -0.4) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00518200. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13080 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: BOOTES-4 optical upper limit DATE: 12/03/21 01:05:22 GMT FROM: Alberto Castro-Tirado at Inst.de Astro. de Andalucia J.C. Tello (IAA-CSIC), P. Kubanek (IP AS CR & IAA-CSIC), J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC), A.J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC), S. Guziy (Nikolaev St. Univ.), Yufeng Fan, Xiaohong Zhao, Jiming Bai, Chuanjun Wang and Yuxin Xin (Yunnan National Astronomical Observatory) and Chenzhou Cui (Beijing National Astronomical Observatory), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the field of GRB 120320A (Markwardt et al., GCNC 13071), detected by Swift/BAT, with the 0.6m BOOTES-4/MET telescope at the Lijiang Astronomical Observatory, China. Unfiltered images were obtained starting 13:48:44UT at high airmass (2h12m after the burst, limited by the local horizon). The resulting limiting magnitude (63 x 180s) is 16.3 when calibrated with the R1Mag value of USNO-B1.0 catalogue stars." This message may be cited. [GCN OPS NOTE(21mar12): Per author's request CW & YX were added to the author list.] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13081 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A , optical observations DATE: 12/03/21 04:49:14 GMT FROM: Shashi Bhushan Pandey at ROTSE Brajesh Kumar, Vijay Kumar Bhatt and S.B. Pandey (ARIES, Nainital, India, on behalf of larger Indian GRB collaboration) We observed the field of GRB 120320A (trigger=518200, Markwardt et al., GCN 13071) with the 1.04m telescope at ARIES Nainital starting at UT 18:39:42 on 20-03-2012. Three images in R_c pass-band (300 sec each) were obtained. The photometry of the co-added R_c frame did not reveal any new source within the XRT error-box (Melandri et al., GCN 13079). The 3-sigma upper limit of the co-added frame was found to be ~ 19.5 mag. The photometry was done in comparison to nearby USNO- B1 stars. This massage may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13082 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: MITSuME Okayama Optical upper limits DATE: 12/03/21 04:55:08 GMT FROM: Daisuke Kuroda at OAO/NAOJ D. Kuroda, K. Yanagisawa, Y. Shimizu, H. Toda (OAO, NAOJ), S. Nagayama (NAOJ), M. Yoshida (Hiroshima), K. Ohta (Kyoto) and N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech) report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120320A (Markwardt et al., GCNC 13071) with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached to the MITSuME 50cm telescope of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. The observation started on 2012-03-20 14:11:31 UT (~2.3 h after the burst) We did not find any new point source within the enhanced XRT circle (Beardmore et al., GCNC 13075) in all the three bands. We also could not detect the previously reported afterglow (Levan et al., GCNC 13077). Three sigma upper limits of the OT are listed below. We used SDSS catalog for flux calibration. T0+[day] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Ic ------------------------------------------------------ 0.13565 15:11:36 6360.0 >20.7 >20.7 >20.0 ------------------------------------------------------ T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day] T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13083 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 12/03/21 11:49:34 GMT FROM: Margaret Chester at PSU M. M. Chester (PSU) and C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120320A 175 s after the BAT trigger (Markwardt et al., GCN Circ 13071). No optical afterglow consistent with the enhanced XRT position (Beardmore et al., GCN Circ 13075) or optical candidate reported by Levan et al. (GCN Circ 13077) is detected in the initial UVOT exposures. Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the first finding chart (FC) exposure and subsequent exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag White_FC 175 325 147 >20.9 White 175 11021 1435 >22.1 v 663 6181 452 >19.8 b 589 6965 416 >20.4 u 333 6796 678 >20.6 uvw1 713 6591 432 >20.4 uvm2 688 6386 432 >20.4 uvw2 639 11148 570 >20.9 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.03 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13086 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A, the review of the sky area in plate archives DATE: 12/03/22 11:43:46 GMT FROM: Valentyna Golovnya at Main Astro Obs,Kyiv V. Golovnya, A. Yatsenko, L. Pakuliak (Main Astro Obs, Kyiv) report: We have undertaken the review of the sky area in vicinity of GRB 120320A (A.P. Beardmore et al. GCN Circ.13075) on astronegatives, collected in Ukrainian NAS Main astronomical observatory plate archive (1976-1996). All the plates with the possible object appearance are digitized using Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL TMA and Epson Expression 10000XL flatbed scanners and have been placed into Golosiiv Plate Archive database DBGPA with open access to them. The list of plates is given in the table: YYYYMMDD/TimeUT --Plates-- Exp. LimMag Star USNOA2 19820304/012601 GUA040C000022A 22.5 16.30 0975-07400209 19820304/012601 GUA040D000023A 22.5 15.25 0975-07399206 19820513/204316 GUA040C002367 59.8 16.90 0975-07398764 19820513/204322 GUA040D002368 59.7 15.65 0975-07399102 19830510/214749 GUA040C002451 32.5 15.25 0975-07399206 19900223/015615 GUA040C001585A 20.0 15.65 0975-07399102 19900301/014633 GUA040C001620 16.0 15.65 0975-07399102 19910411/231232 GUA040C001778A 22.5 15.65 0975-07399102 19910512/205130 GUA040C001783 18.0 15.25 0975-07399206 Plates: –the plates archive identifier of DWA (D/F=400/2000, GUA040C, M=103"/mm) of the Ukrainian NAS Main Astro obs. GUA040D (Marsden's number - 83) the plate number [1]. Exp. - Duration of the maximum exposure (minutes). LimM - Limited V mag, derived in the 28 minutes area around the location given in A. Beardmore et al. GCN Circ.13075: RA(J2000)= 14h 10m 04.31s, Dec(J2000)= +08d 41' 47.3" Star USNOA2 - Comparison star. The preview images of 9 areas together with the 28x28 min.of arc area from SkyMap can be found in http://gua.db.ukr-vo.org/img/grb/120320A/index.html The images with full resolution are available via e-mail on demand. References: 1.L.Pakuliak DATABASE of GOLOSIIV PLATE ARCHIVE (DBGPA V2.0), http://gua.db.ukr-vo.org //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13087 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: Zadko optical observations DATE: 12/03/22 12:16:50 GMT FROM: David Coward at U of Western Aus. D. Macpherson (UWA/ICRAR), D. Coward (UWA), A. Klotz (IRAP-CNRS-OMP), B. Gendre (ASDC/INAF-OAR), M. Todd (Curtin-ICRAR), M. Boer (UNS-CNRS-OCA), A. Williams (PO-UWA), R. Martin (PO-UWA) report: We imaged the field of GRB 120320A detected by SWIFT (trigger 518200) with the UWA Zadko robotic telescope (D=100cm) located at Gingin, Australia. The observations started 6.8 hr after the GRB trigger. The elevation of the field was 49 deg and humid= 63%. 9 images have been maded with a duration of 180.0s each. At the position of the XRT afterglow (Beardmore et al., GCN 13075), we do not detect any source with a limiting magnitude of r = 20.7 on the summed images. The nearest object, which is about 14 arcsec, in our summed image to the XRT location, is a SDSS galaxy (J141005.65+084149.2 ) with a photometric z = 0.34 +- 0.167. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13198 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: early optical upper limit DATE: 12/04/03 18:22:28 GMT FROM: Alina Volnova at SAI MSU A.Volnova (SAI MSU),  E. Sinyakov (ISON), D. Varda (ISON), I. Molotov (KIAM),  A. Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of  larger GRB follow up  collaboration report: We observed the field of the Swift GRB 120320A  (Markwardt  et al., GCN 13071) with ORI-25 (0.25-m) telescope of ISON-Blagoveschensk observatory. We took several unfiltered images of  60 s exposure on Mar.20, starting (UT) 12:06:10, i.e. 10 min after trigger. Within enhanced XRT position (Beardmore et al.,  GCN 13075) we do not detect any  source in different combined images. Photometry is based on nearby USNO-B1.0 stars, R2-values. UT start,    t-t0           filter      Exp.        OT      UL (3 sigma)               (mid, days)             (s) 12:06:10  0.00874    none     10x30       n/d      16.7 12:06:10  0.08435    none   360x30       n/d      19.2 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13199 SUBJECT: GRB 120320A: optical upper limit in Mondy observatory DATE: 12/04/03 18:25:11 GMT FROM: Alina Volnova at SAI MSU A.Volnova (SAI MSU),  I. Korobtsev, E. Klunko (ISTP), A. Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of  larger GRB follow up collaboration report: We observed the field of the Swift GRB 120320A  (Markwardt  et al., GCN 13071) with AZT-33IK telescope of Sayan observatory (Mondy)  on Mar. 20 under mean seeing 2.6 arcsec. We took several images in R-filter of  60 s exposure on Mar.20, between (UT) 14:45:13 - 15:58:25. Within enhanced XRT position (Beardmore et al.,  GCN 13075) we do not detect any  source in a combined image. Photometry is based on nearby USNO-B1.0 stars, R2-values. UT start,    t-t0           filter      Exp.        OT      UL (3 sigma)               (mid, days)             (s) 14:45:13   0.14275    R       72x60         n/d      21.3