//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12930 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/02/12 09:19:47 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 09:11:22 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120212A (trigger=514709). Swift slewed to the burst location at T+44 min due to an Earth limb observing constraint. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 43.105, -18.025 which is RA(J2000) = 02h 52m 25s Dec(J2000) = -18d 01' 29" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a single-peaked structure with a duration of about 8 sec. The peak count rate was ~1600 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. Due to an observing constraint, Swift will not slew until T0+44.6 minutes. There will be no XRT or UVOT data until this time. Burst Advocate for this burst is E. Sonbas (edasonbas AT yahoo.com). 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.) [GCN OPS NOTE(12feb12): Per author's request, the auto-generated "slewed immediately" sentence was corrected to reflect the delayed slew.] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12932 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Faulkes Telescope South afterglow candidate DATE: 12/02/12 10:14:11 GMT FROM: Cristiano Guidorzi at Ferrara U,Italy C. Guidorzi (U. Ferrara), C.G. Mundell, F. Virgili, I.A. Steele (LJMU), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: The 2-m Faulkes Telescope South automatically began observing GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al. GCN Circ. 12930) on February 2012, 09:25:18 UT corresponding to 14 minutes post burst with BVRi' filters. We found the following uncatalogued source, R.A. = 02:52:24.06 Dec = -18:01:14.2 (J2000) with an uncertainty of about 1" with a magnitude of R=16.3 at 22 minutes, calibrated against USNOB-1 stars. Presently, we cannot determine whether the source is fading. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12933 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift/UVOT detection DATE: 12/02/12 10:59:39 GMT FROM: Erik Hoversten at Swift/Penn State E. A. Hoversten (PSU) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.) report on behalf of the Swift team: UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 2885 seconds after the BAT trigger. The source identified by Guidorzi et al. (GCN Circ. 12932) is detected in the rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at RA(J2000) = 02:52:24.06 = 43.10025 DEC(J2000) = -18:01:14.1 = -18.02057 with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.76 arc sec. This position is 5.21 arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is 18.31 with a 1-sigma error of about 0.15. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.03. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12934 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift-XRT observations DATE: 12/02/12 11:03:25 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester M. Perri (ASDC), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU) and G. Cusumano (INAF-IASF PA) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: The XRT began observing the field of GRB 120212A at 09:59:24.6 UT, 2881.9 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a fading, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 43.10208, -18.02125 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 02h 52m 24.50s Dec(J2000) = -18d 01' 16.5" with an uncertainty of 3.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 16 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. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (2.99 x 10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 1.6 (+1.23/-1.13) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12935 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Kanata/HOWPol optical observation DATE: 12/02/12 13:06:41 GMT FROM: Koji Kawabata at HASC,Hiroshima U K. S. Kawabata, H. Akitaya, M. Yamanaka, K. Takaki, T. Uehara, and M. Yoshida (Hiroshima Univ.) report on behalf of Kanata team: We performed a series of optical imaging polarimetry for the optical afterglow of GRB 120212A (Guidorzi et al.; GCN 12932) using HOWPol attached to the 1.5-m Kanata telescope at Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory, Japan. Our first exposure began at t=74 sec since Swift/BAT trigger (Sonbas et al.; GCN 12930), but the bright twilight sky shaded the afterglow until t=22 min. Our quick-look analysis indicates that Rc magnitude of the afterglow was 16.5 at t=23 min and faded to 17.6 at t=58 min. Further analysis is ongoing. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12937 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 12/02/12 13:59:38 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans and M.R. Goad (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 2484 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 7 UVOT images for GRB 120212A, 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 = 43.10025, -18.02079 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 02h 52m 24.06s Dec (J2000): -18d 01' 14.8" 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: 12938 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Errata of subject in GCNC 12936 DATE: 12/02/12 14:09:27 GMT FROM: Kenshi Yanagisawa at OAO/NAOJ Kenshi Yanagisawa, Daisuke Kuroda, Yasuhiro Shimizu, Kiichi Okita (OAO/NAOJ), Michitoshi Yoshida (Hiroshima-U), Kouji Ohta(Kyoto-U), and Nobuyuki Kawai(Tokyo Tech.) report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration: We made a typo on subject in GCNC 12936. The correct subject is "GRB 120212A: MITSuME Okayama Ks-band observation". We apologize for the possible confusion. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12939 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 12/02/12 16:14:22 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC 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), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), G. Sato (ISAS), E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman U), 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+962 sec from recent telemetry downlinks, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120212A (trigger #514709) (Sonbas, et al., GCN Circ. 12930). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 43.086, -18.043 deg, which is RA(J2000) = 02h 52m 20.6s Dec(J2000) = -18d 02' 33.0" with an uncertainty of 1.6 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 22%. The mask-weighted light curve shows a single FRED pulse starting at ~T-0.7. peaking at ~T+1, and ending at ~T+6 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 5.52 +- 1.04 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-0.76 to T+6.09 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 2.05 +- 0.19. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 5.1 +- 0.6 x 10^-7 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-0.02 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 2.1 +- 0.3 ph/cm2/sec. 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/514709/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12940 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift/UVOT Detection DATE: 12/02/12 20:17:41 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL N. P. M. Kuin (MSSL-UCL) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC / Adiyaman_Univ.) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120212A 2885 s after the BAT trigger (Sonbas et al., GCN Circ. 12930). A source consistent with the enhanced XRT position (Osborne et al., GCN Circ. 12937) is detected in the initial UVOT exposures. The preliminary UVOT position is: RA (J2000) = 02:52:24.05 = 43.10020 (deg.) Dec (J2000) = -18:01:14.2 = -18.02062 (deg.) with an estimated uncertainty of 0.53 arc sec. (radius, 90% confidence). The source is in the extended emission of a bright star (HD 17932) at a distance of 31", so the background was sampled at the same distance of that bright star as the GRB is. Preliminary detections and 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the early exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white 2885 3035 147 18.48 +/- 0.08 white 2885 5088 688 18.69 +/- 0.05 v 2867 5379 286 18.12 +/- 0.12 b 3249 4883 393 18.66 +/- 0.08 u 3044 4678 393 18.47 +/- 0.10 w1 4274 11156 765 >21.0 m2 4069 10572 1082 >21.3 w2 3659 5294 393 >20.8 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: 12941 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: NOT optical observation DATE: 12/02/12 21:37:27 GMT FROM: Dong Xu at Weizmann Inst D. Xu (WIS), D. Malesani (DARK), G. Barisevicius (NOT), B. Nordstrom, J. Andersen (NBI), P. Jakobsson (U. Iceland) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCN 12930) using the 2.5m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) equipped with the ALFSOC camera. We obtained 4x200s R-band images with a median time 19:52:24 UT on 2012-02-12, i.e., 10.7 hrs after the BAT trigger. The optical afterglow of this burst (Guidorzi et al., GCN 12932; Hoversten et al., GCN 12933; Kawabata et al., GCN 12935; Kuin et al., GCN 12940) was clearly detected in our stacked image and had R ~ 20.1 mag calibrated with nearby stars in the USNO B1 catalog. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12943 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 12/02/13 00:45:14 GMT FROM: Kim Page at U.of Leicester K.L. Page (U. Leicester) and E. Sonbas (NASA/GSFC/Adiyaman Univ.) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 16 ks of XRT data for GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al. GCN Circ. 12930), from 2.9 ks to 44.6 ks after the BAT trigger. The data are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Osborne et al. (GCN. Circ 12937). The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.25 (+/-0.06). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.11 (+0.16, -0.15). The best-fitting absorption column is 7.5 (+3.3, -3.0) x 10^20 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 3.0 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 3.4 x 10^-11 (4.3 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 7.5 (+3.3, -3.0) x 10^20 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 3.0 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 2.5 sigma Photon index: 2.11 (+0.16, -0.15) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00514709. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12947 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: MITSuME Ishigakijima Optical Observation DATE: 12/02/13 04:58:31 GMT FROM: Daisuke Kuroda at OAO/NAOJ D. Kuroda (OAO, NAOJ), H. Hanayama, T. Miyaji, J. Watanabe (IAO, NAOJ), K. Yanagisawa (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 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCNC 12230) with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached to the Murikabushi 1m telescope of Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory. The observation started on 2012-02-12 12:27:12 UT (~3.3 h after the burst). We detected the previously reported afterglow (Guidorzi et al.,GCNC 12932; Kawabata et al., GCNC 12935; Yanagisawa et al., GCNC 12936) in Rc and Ic bands. Photometric results of the OT are listed below. We used GSC2.3 catalog for flux calibration. #T0+[day] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Rc_err Ic Ic_err ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.14653 12:42:22 780.0 >20.2 18.7 0.2 18.4 0.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day] T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12949 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: GMG optical observation DATE: 12/02/13 07:36:53 GMT FROM: Xiao-hong Zhao at Yunnan Obs X.-H. Zhao (YNAO), D. Xu (WIS), J.-R. Mao (KASI/YNAO), J.-M. Bai (YNAO) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120212A (Sonbas et al., GCN 12930) with 2.4m Gao-Mei-Gu (GMG) telescope. Observations started at 12:11:45 UT on 2012-02-12 (i.e., ~3 hrs after the burst) and 3x600s R-band images were obtained. The optical afterglow of this burst (Guidorzi et al., GCN 12932; Hoversten et al., GCN 12933; Kawabata et al., GCN 12935; Kuin et al., GCN 12940; Xu et al., GCN 12941; Kuroda et al., GCN 12947) was detected. The results are as follows: Comparison star: USNO-B Catalog 0720-0030593, R=18.31 UT(start time) Mag. Err. Exposure time (second) 12:11:45.283 18.77 0.05 600 12:23:51.293 18.64 0.05 600 12:35:30.413 18.96 0.05 600 We thank the GMG staff, especially Ju-Jia Zhang, Jian-Quan He, and De-Qing Wang for performing these observations.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12950 SUBJECT: GRB 120212A: Fermi GBM observation DATE: 12/02/13 09:19:34 GMT FROM: Arne Rau at MPE Arne Rau (MPE) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team: "At 09:11:23.50 UT on 12 February 2012, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor triggered and located GRB 120212A (trigger 350730685 / 120212383) which was also detected by the Swift/BAT (Sonbas et al. 2012, GCN 12930). The GBM on-ground location is consistent with the Swift position. The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight is 53 degrees. The GBM light curve shows/consists of a single peak with a duration (T90) of about 9.2 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-3.1 s to T0+6.1 s is best fit by a simple power law function with index -1.83 ± 0.06 The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (1.407 ± 0.120)E-07 erg/cm^2. The 1.024-sec peak photon flux measured starting from T0+0.64 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 3.3 ± 0.2 ph/s/cm^2. The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary; final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog."