//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12834 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/01/16 18:17:28 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), M. H. Siegel (PSU), R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester), C. A. Swenson (PSU), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU), C. A. Wolf (PSU) and B.-B. Zhang (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 18:06:28 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120116A (trigger=511866). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 16.248, +33.929, which is RA(J2000) = 01h 05m 00s Dec(J2000) = +33d 55' 44" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows at least two precursor peaks followed by a complex FRED peak with a total duration of at least 50 sec. The peak count rate was ~4000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 18:07:42.5 UT, 74.4 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 16.24183, 33.93034 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 01h 04m 58.04s Dec(J2000) = +33d 55' 49.2" with an uncertainty of 4.0 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 19 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 4.64 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 6.52e-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 83 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 100% 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 0.05. Burst Advocate for this burst is A. Melandri (andrea.melandri AT brera.inaf.it). 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: 12835 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: MASTER Early optical limit DATE: 12/01/16 18:33:12 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, V.Kornilov, D.Kuvshinov, A.Belinski, N.Tyurina, N.Shatskiy, P.Balanutsa, V.V.Chazov, A.Kuznetsov, D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov, A.Kuznetsov, D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov, A.Sankovich, S. Shurpakov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute K.Ivanov, V.A.Poleshchuk, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev,E.Konstantinov, Irkutsk State University V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnich, A. Popov Ural State University, Kourovka E. Sinykov, V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory MASTER II robotic double telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB120116A 10 sec s after notice time and 31 sec after GRB time at 2012-01-16 18:06:59.889 UT. On our first (10s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT XRT error-box (Melandri et al, GCN Circ 12834) in both polarizations. The 3-sigma unfiltered upper limit has been about 15.0 mag This circular was generated automatically. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12836 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Bassano Bresciano Observatory optical observations DATE: 12/01/16 21:37:31 GMT FROM: Ulisse Quadri at Bassano Bresciano Obs U.Quadri, L.Strabla and R.Girelli report: We imaged the field of GRB 120116A detected by SWIFT(trigger 511866) with the robotic telescope of (IAU station 565) Bassano Bresciano Observatory, Italy. The observations started 3min 41sec. after the GRB trigger,with our Schmidt telescope D=320 mm F/D=3.1. Weather conditions were discrete. We co-added a series of 15 exposures of 120sec. We did not found any optical counterpart in the error box of the XRTcandidate (Melandri et al, GCN Circ 12834). Start End Vlim 03min 30min 17.0 Magnitudes were estimated with the UCAC-3 catalog and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12837 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: IAC80 I-band observations DATE: 12/01/16 22:49:38 GMT FROM: Javier Gorosabel at IAA-CSIC R. Sanchez-Ramirez (IAA-CSIC), D. Jimenez Mejias (IAC), J.C. Tello (IAA-CSIC), A. de Ugarte Postigo (IAA-CSIC, DARK), J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the field of GRB 120116A (Melandri et al., GCNC 12834) with the 82cm IAC80 telescope at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, Spain. The observations were carried in the I-band on Jan 16.83154 -- 16.91640 UT (1.85-3.89 hours post burst) with a total exposure time of 22x300s. A preliminary analysis of the combined image shows no object brighter than I~21.8 inside the XRT error circle." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12838 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: NOT observations DATE: 12/01/16 23:13:41 GMT FROM: Paul Vreeswijk at U of Iceland Paul Vreeswijk (U. Iceland), Don Pollacco, David Armstrong, Paul McDaid (Queens U. of Belfast), Dong Xu (WIS), A. De Cia and Páll Jakobsson (U. Iceland), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: Using ALFOSC on the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) we have obtained Sloan r'- (3 x 600 s) and z'-band (6 x 300 s) imaging of the field of the Swift GRB 120116A (Melandri et al., GCN 12834), starting on 2012 January 16 at 19:59 UT, just under 2 hours after the burst. The observations were performed in clear conditions, with a seeing of about 1". We do not detect any object within the XRT error circle, down to approximate limiting magnitudes of r'>24.1 and z'>22.4 (calibrated against the SDSS catalog). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12839 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 12/01/16 23:16:16 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC D. M. Palmer (LANL), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), E. E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), 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-61 to T+242 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120116A (trigger #511866) (Melandri, et al., GCN Circ. 12834). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 16.240, 33.927 deg, which is RA(J2000) = 01h 04m 57.7s Dec(J2000) = +33d 55' 36.3" with an uncertainty of 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 85%. The mask-weighted light curve shows a couple small precursor peaks starting at ~T-30 sec. The main peak has a fast rise starting around T-2 sec, peaking at ~T+0 sec, and a roughly linear decay ending around T+30 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 41.0 +- 5.0 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-33.44 to T+26.57 sec is best fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff. This fit gives a photon index 1.31 +- 0.41, and Epeak of 19.4 +- 6.3 keV (chi squared 55.4 for 56 d.o.f.). For this model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 2.9 +- 0.1 x 10^-6 erg/cm2 and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+0.00 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 4.1 +- 0.3 ph/cm2/sec. A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index of 2.70 +- 0.07 (chi squared 101.2 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/511866/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12840 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Optical observations at Crni Vrh DATE: 12/01/16 23:33:02 GMT FROM: Bojan Dintinjana at OCV S. Maticic, B. Dintinjana and H. Mikuz on behalf of PIKA observing program at Crni Vrh Observatory. We observed the field of GRB 120116A (GCN 12834) from Crni Vrh Observatory with a 60 cm robotic telescope, R filter and CCD. Twenty consecutive exposures of 60 second duration were taken. First exposure started at 2012-01-16 18:07:47 UT, 79 seconds after the burst (60 seconds after the SWIFT trigger). No optical candidate was detected within the uncertainty radius on single exposures, having R limiting magnitude 20.0 +/-0.2. Also we found no optical candidate on 20 sumed R images with total exposure of 1200 seconds and limiting R band magnitude 22.0 +/-0.2 (all magnitudes calibrated against the nearby USNO B1.0 R2 magnitude stars). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12841 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: WHT optical observations DATE: 12/01/17 00:32:20 GMT FROM: Andrew Levan at U.of Leicester A.J. Levan, S. Parsons (U. Warwick), N.R. Tanvir, K. Wiersema (U. Leicester), T. R. Marsh (Warwick), S. Littlefair (Sheffield) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120116A (Melandri et al. GCN 12834) with ULTRACAM on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. Observations began approximately 2 hours after the trigger, and 45, 60 second exposures were obtained simultaneously in ug and r. In the XRT error circle we do not locate any sources to preliminary limiting magnitudes of g>25.4, r>24.8, calibrated against SDSS observations of the field. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12842 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: EVLA observations DATE: 12/01/17 09:00:04 GMT FROM: Ashley Zauderer at CfA A. Zauderer and E. Berger (Harvard) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the position of GRB 120116A (GCN 12834) beginning 2012 Jan 17.06 (0.3 d after the burst) with the EVLA at a mean frequency of 5.8 GHz. We find no significant radio emission at the Swift-XRT position (http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper/) to a 3-sigma limit of 45 uJy." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12843 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Gemini optical/IR candidate DATE: 12/01/17 16:37:18 GMT FROM: Andrew Levan at U.of Leicester A.J. Levan (U. Warwick) and N.R. Tanvir (U. Leicester) report for a larger collaboration: "We observed GRB 120116A (Melandri et al. GCN 12834) with Gemini North beginning at Jan 17 04:54, approximately 11 hours after the burst trigger. We obtained optical imaging in iz with GMOS and near-IR imaging in JHK with GNIRS. Within the XRT localization of the source we find a faint object at RA(J2000) 01:04:57.84 DEC(J2000) 33:55:51.1 (error +/- 0.3") with preliminary magnitudes (calibrated against SDSS and 2MASS) of i=24.7 +/- 0.2 z=24.7 +/- 0.3 J> 23.0 (3-sigma) H=22.8 +/- 0.4 K=21.6 +/- 0.3 This object is a plausible counterpart for GRB 120116A. However, at present we cannot assess if the source is fading, as it is significantly fainter than earlier optical limits (Quadri et al. GCN 12836, Sanchez-Ramirez et al. GCN 12837, Vreeswijk et al. GCN 12838, Levan et al. GCN 12841). We further note that the probability of a chance alignment of an object with this magnitude within a 2" error XRT position is non-negligible. We thank the staff of Gemini, in particular Richard McDermid for their assistance in acquiring these data. " //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12844 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Mondy optical observations DATE: 12/01/17 18:12:05 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 120116A (Melandri et al., GCN 12834) with AZT-33IK telescope of Sayan observatory (Mondy) on Jan, 16 between (UT) 18:49:24 - 19:20:20, i.e. starting 40 minutes after the trigger. We took several series of 60 s exposures in R-filter. Within the XRT error circle (Melandri et al., GCN 12834)  we do not detect any source, in particular we do not detect the source reported by Levan and Tanvir (GCN 12843). The photometry is based on the USNO-B1.0 1239-0020213 star (RA=01 05 04.50, Dec=+33 55 37.7) assuming R2=16.36. UT_start,  T0+,        Filter,  Exposure,    OT       uplim,                d                                                       3 sigma 18:49:24   0.03815  R        29x60         n/d     19.5 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12846 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 12/01/17 20:13:49 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester M.R. Goad, J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 1642 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 3 UVOT images for GRB 120116A, 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 = 16.24134, +33.93057 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 01h 04m 57.92s Dec (J2000): +33d 55' 50.0" with an uncertainty of 1.7 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: 12847 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 12/01/17 22:47:37 GMT FROM: Andrea Melandri at INAF-OAB A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), S. Campana (INAF-OAB) and P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 8.2 ks of XRT data for GRB 120116A (Melandri et al. GCN Circ. 12834), from 64 s to 35.1 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 92 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 9 s were taken while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Goad et al. (GCN. Circ 12846). The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The initial decay index is alpha=3.9 (+0.9, -0.8). Centered at T+114 s there is a small flare. The light curve breaks again at T+205 s to a decay with alpha=0.42 (+0.09, -0.07), before a final break at T+8394 s s after which the decay index is 1.24 (+0.69, -0.24). A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.93 (+0.33, -0.28). The best-fitting absorption column is 2.5 (+/-0.6) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 4.6 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 2.19 (+0.19, -0.18) and a best-fitting absorption column of 1.9 (+/-0.5) x 10^21 cm^-2. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.5 x 10^-11 (5.5 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 1.9 (+/-0.5) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 4.6 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 4.8 sigma Photon index: 2.19 (+0.19, -0.18) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00511866. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12848 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 12/01/17 22:57:58 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL N. P. M. Kuin (MSSL-UCL) and A. Melandri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120116A 83 s after the BAT trigger (Melandri et al., GCN Circ. 12834). No optical afterglow consistent with the enhanced XRT position Goad et al, GCN_Circ. 12846) 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 83 233 147 >21.0 u_FC 296 546 246 >20.1 white 83 919 192 >21.1 v 4479 4679 197 >19.1 u 296 5173 324 >20.4 w1 4889 5089 197 >20.2 m2 4684 4884 197 >19.8 w2 4274 4474 197 >20.5 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.05 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12899 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A: optical upper limit DATE: 12/01/27 09:42:18 GMT FROM: Alina Volnova at SAI MSU A. Volnova (SAI MSU), E. Litvinenko (UBAI), I. Molotov (KIAM), A. Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of larger GRB follow up collaboration report: We observed the field of the Swift GRB 120116A (Melandri et al., GCN 12834) with ORI-40 telescope of Kitab ISON observatory on Jan. 16 starting (UT) 18:12:48, i.e. ~6 min after burst trigger. We obtained several unfiltered images with exposure of 60 seconds. On the stacked image we do not detect any source within the enhanced XRT error box (Goad et al., GCN 12846). The photometry is based on nearby reference stars of USNO-B1.0 (R2 magnitudes): Tstart UT, T0+, Filter, Exposure, OT, UL (3 sigma) (mid, d) (s) 18:12:48 0.01480 none 29x60 n/d 19.4 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12906 SUBJECT: GRB 120116A, the review of the sky area in plate archives DATE: 12/01/31 14:27:52 GMT FROM: Valentyna Golovnya at Main Astro Obs,Kyiv V.V.Golovnya (Main Astro Obs, Kyiv) report: We have undertaken the review of the sky area in vicinity of GRB 120116A (M.R. Goad et al., GCN Circ.12846) 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 19770906/232931 GUA040C000721B 30.0 15.95 1200-00453119 19850919/225420 GUA040C000745A 16.0 15.95 1200-00453119 19860910/234443 GUA040C001009A 16.0 15.10 1200-00451448 19870917/232503 GUA040C001119A 16.0 15.55 1200-00452448 19871023/210844 GUA040C001139A 20.0 16.15 1200-00452199 19871024/204207 GUA040C001155A 17.0 15.10 1200-00451448 Plates: –the plates archive identifier of DWA (D/F=400/2000, GUA040C M=103"/mm) of the Ukrainian NAS Main Astro obs. (Marsden's number - 83) the plate number [1]. Exp. - Duration of the maximum exposure (minutes). LimMag - Limited V mag, derived in the 23 minutes area around the location given in M.R. Goad et al. GCN Circ. 12846: RA(J2000): 01h 04m 57.92s, Dec(J2000): +33d 55' 50.0" Star USNOA2 - Comparison star. The preview images of 6 areas together with the 23x19 min.of arc area from SkyMap can be found in http://gua.db.ukr-vo.org/img/grb/120116A/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