This file has all the Circulars on SGR 1900+14. There are several episodes of activity. The newest is last in the file. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1073 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14: A Burst Localized by HETE DATE: 01/06/28 03:23:44 GMT FROM: George Ricker at MIT SGR1900+14: A Burst Localized by HETE G. Ricker, D. Lamb, and S. Woosley on behalf of the HETE Science Team; R. Vanderspek, G. Crew, J. Doty, G. Monnelly, J. Villasenor; N. Butler, T. Cline, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Pizzichini, and G. Prigozhin, on behalf of the HETE Operations and HETE Optical-SXC Teams; N. Kawai, M. Matsuoka, Y. Shirasaki, T. Tamagawa, K.Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, and C. Graziani, on behalf of the HETE WXM Team; J-L Atteia, M. Boer, J-F Olive, J-P Dezalay, and K. Hurley on behalf of the HETE FREGATE Team; write: At 23:24:18.3 UT (84253.3s UT) on 27 June, the HETE FREGATE and WXM instruments detected and localized an intense burst from SGR1900+14, a soft gamma-ray repeater. This event is the second burst localized from this source in the past week, indicating that it may have resumed an active state. (The first burst was reported in GCN Circular #1071.) The coordinates (J2000) of the 27 June burst are: R.A. = 286.947 (19h07m47s.2) Dec. = +9.362 (+9:21:41) The error circle for this localization is 12 arcmin in radius. SGR1900+14 lies 4.6 arcmin from the HETE position. The burst duration in the 8-40 keV band was <200 ms. A total of 1084 counts above background were detected during that interval, corresponding to a fluence of ~2 x 10-7 ergs cm-2 . The peak flux was >3 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 s-1 (ie >100 x Crab flux). Follow-up observations of this transient are encouraged. Additional information on this burst detection (including light curves), as well as for the HETE mission, will be available at: http://space.mit.edu/HETE/ Acronyms: HETE=High Energy Transient Explorer FREGATE=French Gamma Ray Telescope WXM=Wide Field X-ray Monitor SXC=Soft X-ray Camera This message is citeable. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1074 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14: Second Burst Localized by HETE DATE: 01/06/28 16:30:28 GMT FROM: George Ricker at MIT SGR1900+14: A Burst Localized by HETE G. Ricker, D. Lamb, and S. Woosley on behalf of the HETE Science Team; R. Vanderspek, G. Crew, J. Doty, G. Monnelly, J. Villasenor; N. Butler, T. Cline, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Pizzichini, and G. Prigozhin, on behalf of the HETE Operations and HETE Optical-SXC Teams; N. Kawai, M. Matsuoka, Y. Shirasaki, T. Tamagawa, K.Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, and C. Graziani, on behalf of the HETE WXM Team; J-L Atteia, M. Boer, J-F Olive, J-P Dezalay, and K. Hurley on behalf of the HETE FREGATE Team; write: At 15:06:36.51 (54396.51s) UTC on 28 June, the HETE FREGATE and WXM instruments detected and localized an intense burst from SGR1900+14, a soft gamma-ray repeater. This event is the third burst reported from this source in the past week, and the second one reported by HETE on 28 June. (The previous HETE burst was reported in GCN Circular #1073.) The coordinates (J2000) of the burst localized by HETE are: R.A. = 286.803 deg. (19h07m12s.62) Dec. = +9.340 deg. (+9:20:22) The error circle for this localization is 24 arcmin in radius. SGR1900+14 lies 6.2 arcmin from the HETE position. The burst duration in the 8-40 keV band was ~400 ms. A total of 4700 counts above background were detected during that interval, corresponding to a fluence of ~8 x 10-7 ergs cm-2 . The peak flux was ~4 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 s-1 (ie >150 x Crab flux) during a 5 ms interval. Follow-up observations of this transient are encouraged. Additional information on this burst detection (including light curves), as well as for the HETE mission, will be available at: http://space.mit.edu/HETE/ Acronyms: HETE=High Energy Transient Explorer FREGATE=French Gamma Ray Telescope WXM=Wide Field X-ray Monitor SXC=Soft X-ray Camera This message is citeable. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1078 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14: High Fluence Burst Localized by HETE DATE: 01/07/02 05:29:50 GMT FROM: George Ricker at MIT SGR1900+14: High Fluence Burst Localized by HETE G. Ricker, D. Lamb, and S. Woosley on behalf of the HETE Science Team; R. Vanderspek, G. Crew, J. Doty, G. Monnelly, J. Villasenor; N. Butler, T. Cline, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Pizzichini, and G. Prigozhin, on behalf of the HETE Operations and HETE Optical-SXC Teams; N. Kawai, M. Matsuoka, Y. Shirasaki, T. Tamagawa, K. Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, and C. Graziani, on behalf of the HETE WXM Team; J-L Atteia, M. Boer, J-F Olive, J-P Dezalay, and K. Hurley on behalf of the HETE FREGATE Team; write: At 03:34:06.53 UTC (12846.53 s UT) on 2 July, the HETE FREGATE and WXM instruments detected and localized an intense burst from SGR1900+14, a soft gamma-ray repeater. This event is the highest fluence burst yet detected by HETE from SGR1900+14 during its current episode of activity. (The first burst in the current series was reported in GCN Circular #1071.) The coordinates (J2000) of the 2 July burst are: R.A. = 286.846 (19h07m23s.1) Dec. = +9.344 (+9o20'40") The error circle for this localization is 12 arcmin in radius. SGR1900+14 lies 4.1 arcmin from the HETE position. The burst duration in the 8-40 keV band was ~4 s. A total of 44000 counts above background were detected during that interval, corresponding to a fluence of ~8 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 . The peak flux was >7 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 s-1 (ie >200 x Crab flux) over a duration of 10 ms. Follow-up observations of this transient are encouraged. Additional information on this burst detection (including light curves), as well as for the HETE mission, will be available at: http://space.mit.edu/HETE/ Acronyms: HETE=High Energy Transient Explorer FREGATE=French Gamma Ray Telescope WXM=Wide Field X-ray Monitor SXC=Soft X-ray Camera This message is citeable. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1081 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14 burst seen by HETE: BeppoSAX data DATE: 01/07/04 17:16:50 GMT FROM: Filippo Frontera at U. of Ferrara, Physics Dept E. Montanari, C. Guidorzi and F. Frontera, Physics Dept., University of Ferrara, Italy; F. Calura, Astronomy Dept., University of Trieste; M. Feroci, IAS, CNR, Rome, Italy, report: The short burst from SGR1900+14 detected by HETE (GCN # 1078) was also detected by the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor aboard BeppoSAX. The burst triggered the GRBM on board logic at 03:34:07.15 UT of July 2, 2001. The event duration was about 2 s. The event showed significant flux only in the 40-100 keV energy band. The total counts above the background level in this range were 400 +/- 50. Assuming a power law spectral shape, from our data we can set a lower limit to the photon index of 3.5. With a photon index of 4.0, the derived fluence is (1.2+/- 0.2) x 10-6 erg cm-2 in the band from 40 to 100 keV. Using the high time resolution data only available in the 40-700 keV band, the peak flux obtained from 125 ms bins corresponds to (1.4 +/- 0.4)x10-6 erg cm-2 s-1. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1253 SUBJECT: IPN/HETE Detection of Bursts from SGR1900+14 DATE: 02/02/19 21:48:24 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team; G. Ricker, D. Lamb, S. Woosley, G. Crew, J. Doty, G. Monnelly, J. Villasenor, R. Vanderspek, N. Butler, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Prigozhin, J. Braga, R. Manchanda, G. Pizzichini, N. Kawai, M. Matsuoka, Y. Shirasaki, T. Tamagawa, K. Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, T. Donaghy, C. Graziani, T. Tavenner, J-L Atteia, M. Boer, J-F Olive, and J-P Dezalay, on behalf of the HETE Team; M. Feroci, F. Frontera, C. Guidorzi, and E. Montanari, on behalf of the BeppoSAX GRBM team; and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and HETE GRB teams, report: A resurgence of activity from the soft gamma repeater SGR1900+14 has been detected by Ulysses and HETE-FREGATE, as evidenced by the detection of the following short bursts: Date Time at Time at Duration, Fluence, Ulysses HETE s. erg/cm^2 25-100 keV __________________________________________________________________ February 17 74060 s Not observed .032 10^-7 February 18 03916 s Not observed .032 4x10^-7 February 18 10143 s Not observed .12 2x10^-6 February 18 16661 s Not observed .25 10^-6 February 18 21936 s Not observed .22 1.4x10^-6 February 18 22632 s 23134 s .15 1.2x10^-4 Triangulation of the last event on February 18 gives an annulus consistent with the position of SGR1900+14. This SGR is presently ~130 degrees off-axis for FREGATE and the other HETE instruments. However, the last burst was ~100 times more intense than the preceding ones, which explains why it alone could have been detected through the collimator. Assuming that the other events were indeed from SGR1900 (because of their properties and proximity in time, any other origin is extremely unlikely), their Earth-crossing times would have been ~502 s later than the Ulysses times given above. Confirmation of the first five events is being searched for in the data of other spacecraft. (However, the BeppoSAX GRBM was not returning data for this period). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1254 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14 activity DATE: 02/02/20 21:55:38 GMT FROM: Rafail Aptekar at Ioffe Physico Technical Inst S.Golenetskii, E.Mazets, R.Aptekar, and D.Frederiks, on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Coronas-F-Helicon GRB teams; T.Cline, on behalf of the Konus-Wind, Ulysses, and HETE GRB teams; K.Hurley on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, report: A new period of activity of the soft gamma repeater SGR1900+14 (GCN GRB report #1253) had been detected also by Konus-Wind and Helicon-Coronas-F GRB instruments. Several tens of separate short bursts have been recorded on February 17 and 18 exhibiting strong clustering of bursts in time. Such a behaviour strongly resembles activity of this SGR on May 30, 1998 (Aptekar et al. 2001, ApJS, 137, 227, see figures on the pp. 240-243). Date Time at Time at Time at Wind, Coronas-F, Ulysses, s UT s UT s UT ---------------------------------------------------------- 1 Feb 17 79045 79048.051 2 Feb 17 82750 belt 3 Feb 17 84062 84065 4 Fed 17 84156 84158 5 Feb 17 84241 84244 6 Feb 17 84268 84271 7 Feb 17 84285 84289.405 8 Feb 17 84297 84300 9 Feb 17 84321 84324 10 Feb 17 84330 84334 11 Feb 17 84340 84342 12 Feb 17 84356 84360 13 Feb 17 84368 84370 14 Feb 17 84372.561 84375.72 *) 15 Feb 17 no data 84686.934 16 Feb 18 04415 04419.147 03916 17 Feb 18 10645 belt 10143 18 Feb 18 17160.622 belt 16661 19 Feb 18 22435 belt 21936 20 Feb 18 23131.513 not observed 22632 21 Feb 18 25125 25128 22 Feb 18 25190 belt *) Record of this event contains about 30 separate bursts. The large part of events gathered in the Table were recorded in a background mode with time resolution of 3 s for Konus data, and of 1 s for Helicon data. It prevents us from mutual triangulation. However, an analysis of differences in arrival times onto the Wind and Coronas-F spacecraft show that these values are closely distributed around 3.15 s thus confirming the common origin of these events. Such differences between Wind and Ulysses data correspond to value of ~ 500s valid for SGR1900+14. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1255 SUBJECT: IPN detection of further SGR1900+14 activity DATE: 02/02/20 23:27:53 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K.Hurley on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team; S.Golenetskii, E.Mazets, R.Aptekar, and D.Frederiks, on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Coronas-F-Helicon GRB teams; and T.Cline, on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Ulysses GRB teams, report: New episodes of activity from SGR1900+14 continue to be identified in the data from February 17 and 18. The following is an updated list of all bursts known up to this point, including a new cluster of bursts on February 18. This list combines those of GCN 1253 and 1254, and adds several new events to them. Date Time at Konus Time at Ulysses or Coronas-F (approx.) __________________________________________ Feb 17 74060 Feb 17 79045 78540 Feb 17 82750 Data gap Feb 17 84062 Data gap Fed 17 84156 Data gap Feb 17 84241 Data gao Feb 17 84268 Data gap Feb 17 84285 Data gap Feb 17 84297 Data gap Feb 17 84321 Data gap Feb 17 84330 Data gap Feb 17 84340 Data gap Feb 17 84356 Data gap Feb 17 84368 Data gap Feb 17 84372* Data gap Feb 17 84686 Data gap Feb 18 04415 03916 Feb 18 10645 10143 Feb 18 17160 16661 Feb 18 16849 Feb 18 22435 21936 Feb 18 23131 22632 Feb 18 25125 24622* Feb 18 25190 24687* *cluster of many events; a plot of the February 18 cluster has been posted at ssl.berkeley.edu/ipn3/SGR1900+14.2002.02.18 The Ulysses data gap on February 17th may be filled, and searches of the untriggered data on the 17th and 18th are now underway. Data for February 19 have not yet been received. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1256 SUBJECT: RXTE Observations of SGR 1900+14 DATE: 02/02/22 00:05:56 GMT FROM: Peter Woods at UAH/MSFC P.M. Woods, E. Gogus, C.A. Wilson, M.H. Finger (NSSTC), J. Swank, C. Markwardt, T. Strohmayer (GSFC) and D. Smith (UMich) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: SGR 1900+14 entered a new phase of activity starting on February 17 (GCNs 1253, 1254 & 1255). On Feb 19, we triggered ToO observations of SGR 1900+14 with the RXTE PCA and found no bursts in 11 ksec of source exposure, however, the count rate in the PCA (2-10 keV) was found to be much higher than previous monitoring observations of this SGR. We measure a flux of 2E-10 ergs/cm^2 sec (2-10 keV), ~20 times brighter than the quiescent level. No coherent pulsed signal was detected in the data, but the power spectrum did show excess red noise. There are no other cataloged X-ray transients in the 1.1 degree radius FWZM fov of the PCA and an archival search through the ASM data reveals no significant excess at the position of the SGR during the last two months. A PCA scan on Feb 21 found SGR 1900+14 still active at 10 mCrab and revealed no evidence for activity from any new source or the nearby Be star transient (XTE J1906+09). Hence, all evidence suggests that this excess flux originates from the SGR. We note that the excess found on Feb 19 did not fade by Feb 21. In all previous burst active states of SGR 1900+14, the excess flux fades rapidly, approximately as a power-law in time. Based upon this unusual timing and spectral behavior, we conclude that we are observing SGR 1900+14 in a new type of excited state. Observations at other wavelengths are strongly encouraged. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1525 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14 burst localized by HETE DATE: 02/08/27 19:18:49 GMT FROM: Roland Vanderspek at MIT SGR1900+14: Burst Localized by HETE G. Ricker, J-L Atteia, N. Kawai, D. Lamb, and S. Woosley on behalf of the HETE Science Team; N. Butler, R. Vanderspek, J. Villasenor, J.G. Jernigan, G. Monnelly, J. Doty, G. Crew, T. Cline, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Prigozhin, G. Azzibrouck, J. Braga, R. Manchanda, and G. Pizzichini, on behalf of the HETE Optical-SXC and HETE Operations Teams; Y. Shirasaki, C. Graziani, M. Matsuoka, T. Tamagawa, K. Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, T. Tavenner, and T. Donaghy, on behalf of the HETE WXM Team; M. Boer, J-F Olive, J-P Dezalay, and K. Hurley on behalf of the HETE FREGATE Team; write: At 15:35:15.64 UTC (56115.64 s UT) on 27 August, the HETE FREGATE and WXM instruments detected and localized a short burst from the soft gamma repeater SGR1900+14. This burst is the first event from this source localized by the WXM this year, and possibly indicates the onset of an active period for SGR1900+14. The coordinates (J2000) of the burst are: R.A. = 286.856 (19h07m25s.51) Dec. = +9.14 (+9o08'43") The 90% confidence error circle for this localization is 16 arcmin in radius. SGR1900+14 lies 11 arcmin from the center of the WXM error circle. The burst duration in the 8-40 keV band was ~50 ms. A total of 207 counts were detected during that interval, corresponding to a fluence of ~4 x 10-8 ergs cm-2 . The peak flux was >1 x 10-6 ergs cm-2 s (ie >40 x Crab flux). This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1532 SUBJECT: IPN detection of a burst from SGR1900+14 DATE: 02/09/03 22:03:09 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, S. Golenetskii and E. Mazets, on behalf of the Konus-Wind GRB team, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus GRB teams, report: Konus and Ulysses observed this burst on 30 August 2002 at 65283 s. As observed by Ulysses, it had a duration of about 100 ms, a 25-100 keV fluence of 3.2x10^-6 erg/cm2, and a peak flux over 32 ms of 1.5x10^-5 erg/cm2 s. We have triangulated it to an annulus centered at RA, Decl(2000)=347.605 o, -41.279 o, whose radius is 75.226 +/- 0.013 o (3 sigma). As SGR1900 lies 0.002 degrees from the center line of this annulus, we conclude that this burst is from that SGR. This appears to confirm the suggestion of Ricker et al. (GCN1525) that SGR1900+14 may be entering a new period of activity. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1643 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14: burst on October 10 2002 DATE: 02/10/17 20:46:01 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, E. Mazets, S. Golenetskii, and D. Frederiks, on behalf of the Konus-Wind GRB team, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus GRB teams, report: Ulysses and Konus observed this burst at 84276 s. As observed by Ulysses, it had a duration of ~150 ms, a 25-100 keV fluence of ~7E-7 erg/cm2, and a peak flux over 32 ms of 3E-6 erg/cm2 s. The burst triggered Ulysses, but was observed in waiting mode (~ 3 s resolution) by Konus, which had triggered on a solar flare. We have triangulated it to an annulus centered at RA, Decl= 356.131, -36.621 degrees, whose radius is 79.502 +/- 0.056 degrees. As the center line of this annulus passes within 0.049 degrees of SGR1900+14, we conclude that this event originated from that source. Only small improvements to this localization are expected. A subsequent short burst was detected by Ulysses on October 11 at 35680 s (Ulysses time). This burst has not yet been confirmed by any other spacecraft, but if it originated from SGR1900+14, its Earth-crossing time would have been around 35420 s. As of October 16, no other short events have been detected by Ulysses. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1655 SUBJECT: IPN triangulation of SGR1900+14, October 22 2002 DATE: 02/10/25 16:07:38 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, E. Mazets, S. Golenetskii, and D. Frederiks, on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Helicon GRB teams, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus GRB teams, report: Ulysses, Konus, and Helicon observed this burst at 33860 s. As observed by Ulysses, it had a duration of ~32 ms, a 25-100 keV fluence of ~2E-7 erg/cm2, and a peak flux over 32 ms of ~6E-6 erg/cm2 s. We have triangulated it to a preliminary annulus centered at RA, Decl= 358.067, -35.896 degrees, whose radius is 80.722 +/- 0.044 degrees. As the center line of this annulus passes within 0.038 degrees of SGR1900+14, we conclude that this event originated from that source. The Ulysses time history shows evidence of precursor activity, as well as hints of activity following the burst, suggesting that SGR1900+14 may be entering a new active phase (see GCN 1643). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1664 SUBJECT: IPN triangulation of a burst from SGR1900+14 on October 29 2002 DATE: 02/10/31 01:26:12 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, and D. M. Smith, R. P. Lin, J. McTiernan, R. Schwartz, C. Wigger, W. Hajdas, and A. Zehnder, on behalf of the RHESSI GRB team, report: Ulysses and RHESSI observed this burst at 54965 s. As observed by Ulysses, it had a duration ~0.064 s, a 25-100 keV fluence of ~1.7E-6 erg/cm2, and a peak flux over 0.032 s of ~6.9E-6 erg/cm2 s. We have triangulated it to a preliminary annulus centered at RA, Decl(2000)=359.228, -35.522 degrees, whose radius is 81.458 +/- 0.010 degrees (3 sigma). As the center line of this annulus passes within 0.003 degrees of SGR1900+14, we conclude that this burst originated from that source. Previous bursts from SGR1900+14 were observed on October 10 and October 22 2002 (GCN 1643, 1655). The source is evidently in an active phase. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1665 SUBJECT: IPN triangulation of a burst from SGR1900+14 on November 01, 2002 DATE: 02/11/01 18:34:57 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, and E. Mazets and S. Golenetskii, on behalf of the Helicon-Coronas GRB team, report: Ulysses and Helicon observed this burst at 21837 s. Based on the data available so far, its duration (as observed by Helicon) was ~0.1 s and its 25-100 keV fluence (as observed by Ulysses) was ~ 1.2E-6 erg/cm2. We have triangulated it to a preliminary annulus centered at RA, Decl(2000)=359.608, -35.426 degrees, whose radius is 81.708 +/- 0.032 degrees (3 sigma). As the center line of this annulus passes within 0.018 degrees of SGR1900+14, we conclude that this burst originated from that source. Previous bursts from SGR1900+14 were observed by the IPN on October 10, 22 and 29 2002 (GCN 1643, 1655, 1664). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1666 SUBJECT: Detection of activity from SGR 1900+14 with the RXTE/PCA DATE: 02/11/01 19:38:47 GMT FROM: Chryssa Kouveliotou at MSFC C. Kouveliotou, P. Woods and E. Gogus report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed SGR 1900+14 within the framework of our long-term monitoring program of the source with RXTE/PCA on 11/01/02, starting at 00:14 UT. Our on-source time was 9.5 ks, during which we detected 7 bursts. Unfortunately, source XTE J1908+094, which is currently active and within the PCA field of view, is detected at roughly four times the quiescent SGR flux intensity, impeding the detection of pulsations from the repeater. Our results confirm the detection of activity from the SGR reported in GCNs 1643, 1655, 1664 and 1665, and indicate that the source has entered a new active phase. Observations at radio and IR wavelengths are strongly encouraged. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1673 SUBJECT: SGR1900+14 activity, November 2-4, 2002 DATE: 02/11/04 21:50:47 GMT FROM: Evgeny Mazets at Ioffe Physico Technical Inst E. Mazets, S. Golenetskii, R. Aptekar, D. Frederiks and V. Palshin on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Helicon-Coronas-F GRB teams, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Konus GRB teams, K. Hurley and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, report: Recently, increasing of SGR 1900+14 activity was detected by Ulysses, Konus-Wind, Helicon-Coronas-F (GCNs 1643, 1655, 1665). In the begining of November, Konus-Wind, and Helicon observed a number of SGR-like trigger bursts: data time 1 021102 15415 s UT (Konus-Wind) 2 021102 18298 s UT (Helicon) 3 021102 23998 s UT (Konus-Wind, Helicon) 4 021104 19157 s UT (Konus-Wind, Helicon) As observed by Konus-Wind, they had durations 0.1-0.5 s, fluences of ~5 - 7E-6 erg/cm2, and peak fluxes over 8 ms of ~ 3 - 5E-5 erg/cm2 s. After the initial burst of event 3 (021102 23998 s UT), a cluster of short bursts was detected during ~10 minutes (both by Konus-Wind and Helicon). We have triangulated two of these bursts to annuli centered at: 021102 23998 s UT RA = 357.97, Decl = -4.73 deg, radius 72.0 +/- 1.2 deg 021104 19157 s UT RA = 14.19, Decl = 1.42 deg, radius 87.0 +/- 0.5 deg These annuli pass through SGR1900+14. Both, Konus-Wind and Helicon detected many SGR-like bursts on November, 2 in the background mode. These data confirm that SGR 1900+14 has entered a new phase of high activity (see also GCNs 1664, 1666). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1674 SUBJECT: IPN triangulation of bursts from SGR1900+14, November 1-2, 2002 DATE: 02/11/04 22:09:40 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, I. Mitrofanov, D. Anfimov, A. Kozyrev, M. Litvak and A. Sanin, on behalf of the HEND-Odyssey GRB team, W. Boynton, C. Fellows, K. Harshman, C. Shinohara and R. Starr, on behalf of the GRS-Odyssey GRB team, E. Mazets and S. Golenetskii, on behalf of the Konus-Wind GRB team, T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses, Konus, HETE, and MO GRB teams, and G. Ricker, J-L Atteia, N. Kawai, D. Lamb, S. Woosley, J. Doty, R. Vanderspek, J. Villasenor, G. Crew, G. Monnelly, N. Butler, J.G. Jernigan, A. Levine, F. Martel, E. Morgan, G. Prigozhin, J. Braga, R. Manchanda, G. Pizzichini, Y. Shirasaki, C. Graziani, M. Matsuoka, T. Tamagawa, K. Torii, T. Sakamoto, A. Yoshida, E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, T. Tavenner, T. Donaghy, M. Boer, J-F Olive, and J-P Dezalay, on behalf of the HETE GRB team, report: SGR1900+14 remains active. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the bursts observed over the last several days. DATE (DDMMYY) TIME, S. OBSERVED BY* FLUENCE, erg/cm2 DURATION, S. COMMENTS _____________ ________ ___________ ________________ ____________ ________ 011102 68889 U,K,M 8.5E-6 0.5 021102 15414 U,K 3.3E-6 0.3 021102 23998 U,K 2.9E-6 0.5 021102 24159-25078 U,K,H 1.8 - 17.E-6 Up to 1 s Cluster of ~10 evemts * U=Ulysses K=Konus-Wind M=Mars Odyssey/HEND H=HETE/FREGATE Numerous other SGR-like events have been observed by only one spacecraft, and they are likely to have originated from SGR1900+14, but for the time being, they cannot be localized. We note that the burst on November 1, which was observed by Mars Odyssey/HEND, confirms the timing of that spacecraft to high accuracy. From now on, unless an exceptional burst occurs, we will issue IPN notices for groups of events during this period of activity, instead of for single events. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1704 SUBJECT: IPN detection of possible reactivation of SGR1900+14 DATE: 02/11/23 09:48:23 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, E. Mazets and S. Golenetskii, on behalf of the Konus-Wind GRB team, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus teams, report: At least 10 short, intense SGR-like bursts have been detected by Konus and Ulysses on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of November. Although it is not possible to localize them at the present time for technical reasons, it is likely that they originate from SGR1900+14. This will be confirmed as soon as possible. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1705 SUBJECT: IPN confirmation of the reactivation of SGR1900+14 DATE: 02/11/24 03:03:14 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, E. Mazets and S. Golenetskii, on behalf of the Konus-Wind GRB team, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus teams, report: We confirm that SGR1900+14 has reactivated (GCN 1704). The following is a non-exhaustive list of confirmed and unconfirmed short, intense SGR-like events: November 20 44559 s (2) November 21 65091 s (1) November 21 75861 s (2) November 22 15942 s (2) November 22 21977 s (2) November 22 25562 s (2) November 22 30032 s (2) November 22 34552 s (2) November 22 38732 s (2) November 22 48626 s (2) November 22 52607 s (2) November 22 60860 s (2) November 23 02387 s (1) Notes: 1. Confirmed event; triangulation annulus agrees with the position of SGR1900+14. Earth crossing time given. 2. Unconfirmed event for the moment. Time is the time at Ulysses. To get the Earth crossing time for SGR1900+14, subtract ~248 s. Prior to this episode, the last bursts from this source appear to have been on November 4. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 1715 SUBJECT: IPN detection of continued SGR1900+14 activity DATE: 02/11/30 20:47:14 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley, on behalf of the Ulysses GRB team, E. Mazets and S. Golenetskii, on behalf of the Konus-Wind and Helicon-Coronas GRB teams, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Ulysses and Konus GRB teams, report: Between November 24 and November 30 2002, eleven intense SGR-like bursts have been observed, not all of which can be localized at present for technical reasons. Of those bursts that can be localized, the triangulation annuli are consistent with the position of SGR1900+14. The number of intense bursts per day observed over this seven-day period was 3, 0, 1, 4, 2, 0, and 1. Therefore we believe that this source continues to be active, possibly with a decreasing level of activity. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4922 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Swift detection of renewed activity DATE: 06/03/25 20:44:44 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC L. Vetere (ASDC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift-BAT Team: At 20:16:40 on 25 Mar 2006 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a burst from SGR 1900+14 (trigger=202746). Swift did not slew to this location because it was determined to be a known source, and hence given a low merit value. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 286.828, +9.270 {19h 07m 19s, +09d 16' 11"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). This position is consistent with SGR 1900+14 (3.3 arcminutes). The BAT light curve shows a single spike with a FWHM less than ~200 msec at T_zero. The peak count rate was ~1600 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. This Soft Gamma-ray Repeater has not been active since late 2002. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4923 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Refined Swift-BAT analysis of the renewed activity DATE: 06/03/26 19:22:53 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC G. Sato (ISAS), L. Barbier (GSFC), S. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC), E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), D. Hullinger (BYU-Idaho), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL), A. Parsons (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/NRC), J. Tueller (GSFC), L. Vetere (ASDC) on behalf of the Swift-BAT team: Using the full data set from recent telemetry downlinks, we report further analysis of Swift-BAT detection of SGR 1900+14 (trigger #202746) (Vetere, et al., GCN 4922). T90 is 48 +- 4 msec. The partial coding fraction is 33%. The lightcurve is a single FRED-like peak wih a decay of ~16 msec. The BAT spectrum is well fitted with a blackbody model: kT = 17.5 -7.9,+15.7 keV (90% confidence). The reduced chi-squared is 0.95 for 57 degrees of freedom. The spectral parameters are consistent with the HETE-2 observation of the 2001 middle-class burst of SGR 1900 (see Fig.5 of Olive et al. ApJ 616 (2004) 1148 (astro-ph/0403162)). There are 4 other BAT detections from this source (two before the original triggered detection, and two after): Date Time Comment 2006-03-25 10:12:05 Roughly 4 times brighter than the 20:16:40 outburst 2006-03-25 18:07:21 Roughly 2 times brighter than the 20:16:40 outburst 2006-03-25 20:16:40 Triggered detection 2006-03-25 23:34:08 Comparable to 20:16:40 in brightness 2006-03-26 00:59:23 Comparable to 20:16:40 in brightness We note that the 4th & 5th events occurred during TOO follow-up observations of the SGR 1900+14 source. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4924 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: CORRECTION to GCN 4923 DATE: 06/03/26 22:01:16 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC S. Barthelmy (GSFC) on behalf of the Swift-BAT team: In GCN 4923, we incorrectly reported that the kT for the blackbody fit was kT = 17.5 -7.9,+15.7 [keV] (90% confidence). The correct value is kT = 7.6 -1.1/+1.0 [keV] (90% confidence level). We apologize for any inconvenience. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4933 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Swift-BAT detection of a bright outburst DATE: 06/03/29 01:54:35 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL A. Moretti (INAF-OAB), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), P. Romano (INAF-OAB) and L. Vetere (ASDC) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 01:28:03 UT 29 March 2006, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a bright burst from SGR 1900+14 (trigger=203109). Swift was already pointed at this Soft Gamma-ray Repeater and taking data with the XRT and UVOT. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 286.802, +9.329 {19h 07m 12s, +09d 19' 43"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty), consistent with the known SGR location (1 arcmin). The BAT light curve shows a single intense spike of width 128 ms with 15,000 counts in the brightest 128 ms bin (15-100 keV) with no evidence for emission above 100 keV. This marks the 13th and brightest identified burst from this source in its current episode of activity, and the 6th to occur during pointed observations. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4934 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Swift-BAT detection of a cluster of outbursts DATE: 06/03/29 03:22:49 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC P. Romano (INAF-OAB), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), A. Moretti (INAF-OAB) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 02:53:09 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located SGR 1900+14 (trigger=203127). Swift was already following up this source when this new outburst occurred. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 286.804, +9.330 {19h 07m 13s, +09d 19' 48"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve has multiple peaks. There are at least 8 peaks in the first 25 sec. There are about 4 more smaller peaks in the next 10 sec, and a peak at T+135 sec. The peak count rate was ~350,000 counts/sec (15-100 keV), at ~21 sec after the trigger. We note this is ~3 times brighter than the single-peak outburst detected on the previous orbit. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4935 SUBJECT: INTEGRAL and XMM ToO observations of SGR1900+14 DATE: 06/03/29 15:12:26 GMT FROM: Kevin Hurley at UCBerkeley/SSL K. Hurley (UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory) and D. Gotz (CEA/SAP, Saclay), on behalf of larger teams, report: In view of the resurgence of activity of SGR1900+14 (GCN 4923, 4933), we have called two ToO observations of this source. INTEGRAL will observe it almost continuously between April 1 13:32 and April 3 06:21. XMM will observe it for 25 ksec starting April 1 15:00. Observations at other wavelengths, particularly the radio and infrared, are encouraged. Observers should consult the INTEGRAL and XMM websites for any last-minute schedule changes. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4936 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: bright burst detected by Konus-Wind on March 28 DATE: 06/03/29 15:48:50 GMT FROM: Valentin Pal'shin at Ioffe Inst S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, E. Mazets, V. Pal'shin, D. Frederiks, and T. Cline on behalf of the Konus-Wind team report: A bright SGR-like burst 060328 was detected by Konus-Wind at 32580.175 s UT (09:03:00.175). The Konus-Wind ecliptic latitude response is consistent with SGR 1900+14 position (and is inconsistent with the positions of all other known SGRs). So, taking in account the resuming SGR 1900+14 activity detected recently by Swift-BAT (Vetere et al., GCN 4922; Sato et al., GCN 4923, 4924), we believe that this burst originated from this SGR. The recent Swift-BAT reports on detections of SGR 1900+14 bursts on March 29 (Moretti et al., GCN 4933; Romano et al., GCN 4934) also confirm our conclusion. At the time of the burst Swift was in SAA. The burst light curve shows the main two-peaked pulse with a duration of ~0.13 sec and a much weaker precursor at T-T0~ -0.14 with a duration of ~0.03 sec. The burst had a fluence 1.06(-0.10,+0.08)x10^-6 erg/cm2, and a peak flux measured from T0+0.026 sec on 4 msec time scale 2.18(-0.35,+0.33)x10^-5 erg/cm2/sec (both in the 20-200 keV energy range). The spectrum integrated over the most intense part of the burst (from T-T0=0 to T-T0=0.064 sec) is well fitted (in the 20-200 keV range) by the OTTB spectral model: dN/dE ~ E^{-1} exp(-E/kT), with kT = 21.6 +/ 2.0 keV. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4946 SUBJECT: Konus-Wind observation of the recent SGR 1900+14 activity. Will DATE: 06/04/03 15:03:04 GMT FROM: Valentin Pal'shin at Ioffe Inst S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, E. Mazets, V. Pal'shin, D. Frederiks and T. Cline on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report: Konus-Wind triggered twice on March 29 due to SGR 1900+14 activity. The first trigger occurred at 5282.959 s UT (01:28:02.959). This burst was detected and located by Swift BAT (Moretti et al., GCN 4933). It was an ordinary single spike SGR burst with a duration of ~0.07 sec. It had a fluence 7.21(-1.46,+0.91)x10^-7 erg/cm2 (in the 20-200 keV range). Its spectrum is well fitted by OTTB model with kT=18.3(-3.1,+3.7) keV. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. Much more interesting event triggered Konus-Wind at T0=9928.369 s UT (02:45:28.369). It was a series of bursts. The trigger part of the series contains seven intense bursts and several substantially weaker bursts. The fluences of the intense bursts vary from ~10^-7 to 1.5x10^-6 erg/cm2 (in the 20-200 keV range). At this time Swift was in SAA and did not detect these bursts. After the end of the Konus-Wind trigger record and during data read-out much more intense cluster of the bursts (observed and located by Swift-BAT (Romano et al., GCN 4934) was detected by Konus-Wind at T-T0=458 s (02:53:08) with coarse time resolution of 3.96 sec. As observed by Konus-Wind the cluster had a duration of ~25 sec. Fortunately, the multichannel spectra were accumulated by Konus-Wind during this cluster of bursts. We conservatively estimate the cluster fluence to be (1-2)10^-4 erg/cm2 (in the 20-200 keV range). This value can be refined. It is worth to notice that the reactivation of SGR 1900+14 in 1998 started with several single bursts, which were shortly followed by a series of bursts on 1998 May 30. (http://www.ioffe.rssi.ru/LEA/SGR/Catalog/Data/1900/980530a.htm ; Aptekar et al., ApJSS, 137, 227 (2001)) This series occurred 89 days before the 27 August 1998 giant flare. The first burst series from SGR 1806-20 was detected on 2004 October 5 by INTEGRAL-IBIS/ISGRI (Mereghetti et al., GCN 2763; Gotz, Mereghetti, and Mirabel, GCN 2764) and Konus-Wind (Golenetskii et al., GCN 2769), 83 days before the 27 December 2004 giant flare from this SGR. Other two series from SGR 1806-20 were detected by Konus-Wind on 2004 December 21 and 25. The March 29 series, considered here, resembles the burst series mentioned above, and has several times greater fluence. We conclude that at present time SGR 1900+14 demonstrates a behavior similar to pre-giant flare state. So we may expect a further increase activity of SGR 1900+14 and a repeated (!) giant flare from this SGR at the latter half of June. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4949 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: BAT observations DATE: 06/04/03 22:34:53 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL Please note: This is courtesy copy of Astronomer's Telegram #789 forwarded to the GCN mailing list due to its specific interest to the Gamma-Ray community. The URL for this Telegram is http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=789 Please cite the ATEL, rather than the GCN. Swift-BAT observations of SGR 1900+14 D. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/ORAU), S. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/ORAU), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), J. Tueller (GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift BAT team: The recent re-activation of the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater SGR 1900+14 (Vetere et al. GCN# 4922) has been intensively observed by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) as well as by the Swift UVOT and XRT instruments. Here we report on the BAT results. The first detection by BAT was at 2006-03-25 10:12:04 UTC, and marked the first detection of a burst from this source since 2003 (C. Kouveliotou, priv. comm.) The most recent burst was 2006-03-29 12:19:51 (as of 2006-04-03 11:00). A total of 22 bursts or burst sequences have been identified by the onboard software (where a burst sequence is defined as a set of bursts separated from other detected bursts by at least 5 minutes, including gaps due to observational and instrumental effects). In the 5 months before this latest round of activity, the upper limit to steady-state emission on individual days with good observations of this source is 30 mCrab (3 sigma). In the 9-month interval 2004-12-15 to 2005-09-15, the long-term average steady-state emission is less than 1.4 mCrab (5 sigma). The greatest intensity of activity was during an interval starting before 2006-03-29 02:38:10 (when the SGR entered the BAT field of view) to 02:59:43 (beyond which there is no detected activity through the end of the pointing at 03:13:11). Within this time period there is a considerably more intense interval, 2:53:10 - 2:53:42, which we will call the storm. Event-by-event data is available for most of this storm period. The storm contains both wide and narrow peaks. The narrow peaks have typical widths of 10-100 ms and peak rates up to 400 counts/ms. The wide peaks have peak rates falling in the narrow range of 400-850 counts/ms and durations of up to 1.5 seconds. (All rates are ~12-100 keV measured on 1 ms timescales with approximately 2300 cm^2 effective area). The wide peaks typically show a rapid rise (<10 ms) to near the maximum value, a somewhat steady decline (at rates of ~1 count/ms/ms), sometimes with instances of re-energization, to an inflection point typically at a rate around 200-400 counts/ms, followed by a precipitous drop over the next ~10 ms. For spectroscopy, data from the narrow peaks were accumulated into a single spectrum for analysis, while the wide peaks were analyzed with time-resolved spectra. The accumulated spectrum of short peaks is well fitted with an optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum (OTTB), a power-law times an exponential cutoff model (CPL), and a sum of two blackbodies model (2BB). A single blackbody model shows a bad fit. kT of OTTB is 21 keV. In 2BB model, the temperatures are 4.6 keV and 11.2 keV. The time-resolved spectra of the bright peaks are well fitted in CPL and 2BB. But they show a bad fit in OTTB model, especially at the bright part. However, if we ignore below spectral bins 30 keV, OTTB model shows an acceptable fit with temperatures consistent with the Konus-Wind, RXTE and BATSE observations (Aptekar et al, ApJS, 137, 227; Ibrahim et al. ApJ, 558, 237). The temperatures and the blackbody radii in 2BB model are consistent with the HETE-2 parameters (2001 activity; Olive et al., ApJ, 616, 1148). There appears to be an excess above 70 keV during the brightest parts of the peaks. However, since these spectra reach an intensity of 200 Crab, they are dominated by systematics, and the apparent excess may be an artifact of our calibration. This behavior is qualitatively consistent with confined fireball models. The narrow peaks are optically thin fireballs, and the wide peaks are fireballs that are originally optically thick with contracting photospheres that reach transparency at the inflection point. Quantitative comparison to this model awaits more detailed calculation. Light curves and lists of burst times for this activity may be viewed at http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/other/SGR1900+14_swift_bat.html -- David Palmer palmer@lanl.gov (505)665-6863 (voice) (505)665-4414 (fax) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4962 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Swift detection of an outburst DATE: 06/04/14 05:06:39 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC A. D. Falcone (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), S. D. Hunsberger (PSU) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 04:35:28 UT 14 Apr 06, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located an outburst from SGR 1900+14 (trigger=205164). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 286.799, +9.322 {19h 07m 12s, +09d 19' 19"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty), 37 arcseconds from the known source location. The BAT light curve shows a single spike with a duration less than 256 msec. The peak count rate was ~3000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. This is the third burst of comparable size from this source in the past three days. The XRT began taking data at 04:36:17 UT, 49 seconds after the BAT trigger. The XRT on-board centroid algorithm did not find a source in the image and no prompt position is available. However, from the initial light curve, it appears that XRT did detect photons from the outburst. UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 100 seconds with the White (160-650 nm) filter starting 53 seconds after the BAT trigger. No afterglow candidate has been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 25% of the BAT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 18.5 mag. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers the known position of SGR1900+14. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No correction has been made for the large, but uncertain extinction expected. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 4965 SUBJECT: SGR 1900+14: Refined analysis of the Swift-BAT outburst DATE: 06/04/14 21:01:50 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC S.D. Barthelmy (GSFC), L. Barbier (GSFC), J. Cummings (GSFC/NRC), A. Falcone (PSU), E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), D. Hullinger (BYU-Idaho), H. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), C. Markwardt (GSFC/UMD), D. Palmer (LANL), A. Parsons (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/NRC), G. Sato (ISAS), J. Tueller (GSFC) on behalf of the Swift-BAT team: Using the data set from T-240 to T+323 sec from recent telemetry downlinks, we report further analysis of the outburst detected by BAT of SG1900+14 (trigger #205164) (Falcone, et al., GCN 4962). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA,Dec = 286.886,+9.524 deg {19h 7m 32.6s, 9d 31' 27.3"} (J2000) +- 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 100%. The mask-weighted lightcurve shows two slightly overlapping pulses with a FWHM of ~0.030 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 0.040 +- 0.010 sec (estimated error including systematics). The best fit is a thermal bremsstrahlung model with kT [keV] = 43.5 -11/+14 and the normalization = 48.9 -10.6/+14.3. The fluence is 1.3 +/- 0.2 x10^-8 erg/cm2. All values are in the 15-150 keV band at the 90% confidence level. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT NUMBER: 5250 SUBJECT: BAT Trigger #214277 is SGR 1900+14 DATE: 06/06/10 22:09:04 GMT FROM: Jay R. Cummings at NASA/GSFC/Swift J. R. Cummings (NASA/ORAU), G. Cusumano (INAF-IASFPA), V. La Parola (INAF-IASFPA), K. M. McLean (LANL/UTD), T. Mineo (INAF-IASFPA), G. Sato (GSFC/ISAS), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) and E. Troja (INAF-IASFPA) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 06:53:01 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located a short soft burst (trigger=214277). Swift slewed immediately to the source. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA,Dec 286.791, +9.323 {19h 07m 10s, +09d 19' 22"} (J2000) with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a single weak peak with a duration of < 0.032 sec. The peak count rate was ~1500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. As stated in the GCN Notice corresponding to this trigger, the source is coincident with SGR 1900+14. The short, soft emission is completely consistent with the previous characteristics of the SGR. This is the first BAT onboard detection of this source since 2006-04-14. The XRT began taking data at 06:54:50 UT, 110 seconds after the BAT trigger. XRT PC data of the first orbit (exposure 2264.7 s) shows a source at the SGR position with a constant rate of (5.8+/-0.5)E-2 c/s consistent with the quiescent state of the source. The source rate corresponds to an unabsorbed (0.2-10 keV) flux of (2.0+/-0.2)E-11 erg cm**-2 s**-1.