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).