//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20276 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 16/12/17 01:54:47 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL V. D'Elia (ASDC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), H. A. Krimm (CRESST/NSF/USRA), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL) and T. Sakamoto (AGU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 01:27:34 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 161217A (trigger=727167). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 150.637, +52.389 which is RA(J2000) = 10h 02m 33s Dec(J2000) = +52d 23' 21" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a peak starting around T+35s and lasting about 15 seconds. (Because this was an image trigger, the 'trigger time' is not tightly synchronized to the time of the rate increase.) The peak count rate was ~600 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~35 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 01:30:15.5 UT, 160.9 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 150.6517, 52.3592 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 10h 02m 36.40s Dec(J2000) = +52d 21' 33.1" with an uncertainty of 2.4 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 112 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. No spectrum from the promptly downlinked event data is yet available to determine the column density. UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 144 seconds with the White filter starting 163 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 none of the XRT error circle. 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 0.01. Burst Advocate for this burst is V. D'Elia (delia AT asdc.asi.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: 20278 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 16/12/17 05:27:58 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 1529 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT images for GRB 161217A, 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 = 150.65129, +52.35891 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 10h 02m 36.31s Dec (J2000): +52d 21' 32.1" with an uncertainty of 1.9 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: 20280 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 16/12/17 10:10:04 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester T.G.R. Roegiers (PSU), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), B. Mingo (U. Leicester), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), L.M. McCauley (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU) and V. D'Elia report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 6.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 161217A (D'Elia et al. GCN Circ. 20276), from 171 s to 16.8 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. 20278). The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=0.69 (+/-0.06). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.67 (+0.20, -0.11). The best-fitting absorption column is consistent with the Galactic value of 7.7 x 10^19 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.9 x 10^-11 (3.9 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 7 (+/-37) x 10^19 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 7.7 x 10^19 cm^-2 Excess significance: <1.6 sigma Photon index: 1.67 (+0.20, -0.11) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 0.69, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 7.9 x 10^-3 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 3.0 x 10^-13 (3.1 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00727167. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20282 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 16/12/17 17:26:54 GMT FROM: Frank Marshall at GSFC F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC) and V. D'Elia (ASDC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 161217A 163 s after the BAT trigger (D'Elia et al., GCN Circ. 20276). No optical afterglow consistent with the enhanced XRT position (Osborne et al., GCN Circ. 20278) 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) exposures and subsequent exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white_FC 163 308 142 >21.0 u_FC 314 564 246 >21.0 white 163 1713 406 >21.2 v 644 1589 117 >18.8 b 576 1689 111 >19.8 u 314 1664 343 >20.4 w1 693 1639 97 >20.3 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.01 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20284 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 16/12/18 04:08:49 GMT FROM: Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC/NSF A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. R. Cummings (CPI), V. D'Elia (ASDC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU), T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-239 to T+963 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 161217A (trigger #727167) (D'Elia, et al., GCN Circ. 20276). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 150.658, 52.344 deg which is RA(J2000) = 10h 02m 38.0s Dec(J2000) = +52d 20' 38.9" with an uncertainty of 2.1 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 100%. The mask-weighted light curve shows an initial soft, weak peak from T-20 to T+20 sec, followed by a stronger peak from T+32 to T+48 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 1 8.2 +- 5.8 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T+33.77 to T+53.86 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 2.70 +- 0.35. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.9 +- 0.4 x 10^-7 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+42.64 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 0.4 +- 0.1 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/727167/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20285 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: MITSuME Okayama upper limits DATE: 16/12/18 15:22:08 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 MITSuME and OISTER collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 161217A (D'Elia et al., GCNC 20276) 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 2016-12-17 12:40:15 UT (~11.2 h after the burst). We did not find any new point source within the Enhanced XRT circle (Osborne et al., GCNC 20278) in all the three bands. Three sigma upper limits of the OT are listed below. We used SDSS-DR8 catalog for flux calibration. #T0+[day] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Ic ----------------------------------------------------- 0.51298 13:46:16 5760.0 >19.1 >19.1 >18.4 0.76490 19:49:01 6180.0 >20.1 >19.9 >19.1 ----------------------------------------------------- T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day] T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20289 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: TAROT Calern observatory optical observations DATE: 16/12/18 20:41:58 GMT FROM: Alain Klotz at IRAP-CNRS-OMP Klotz A., Turpin D., Atteia J.L. (CNRS-OMP-IRAP), Boer, M., Laugier, R. (CNRS-ARTEMIS), Gendre B. (UVI - Etelman Obs.) report: We imaged the field of GRB 161217A detected by SWIFT (trigger 727167) with the TAROT robotic telescope (D=25cm) located at the Calern observatory, France. The observations started 133.3s after the GRB trigger (18.3s after the notice). The elevation of the field increased from 65 degrees above horizon and weather conditions were good. The first image is trailed with a duration of 60.0s (see the description in Klotz et al., 2006, A&A 451, L39). We do not detect any OT with a limiting magnitude of: t0+133.3s to t0+193.3s : Rlim = 16.3 The second image is 30.0s exposure in tracking mode: t0+208.6s to t0+238.6s : Rlim = 16.9 We co-added a series of exposures: t0+208.6s to t0+611.7s : Rlim = 18.1 Magnitudes were estimated with the nearby USNO-B1 stars and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 20447 SUBJECT: GRB 161217A: 15 GHz upper limits from AMI DATE: 17/01/13 12:17:33 GMT FROM: Kunal Mooley at Oxford U K. P. Mooley, T. D. Staley, R. P. Fender (Oxford), G. E. Anderson (Curtin), T. Cantwell (Manchester), D. Titterington, S. H. Carey, J. Hickish, Y. C. Perrott, N. Razavi-Ghods, P. Scott (Cambridge), K. Grainge, A. Scaife (Manchester) The AMI Large Array triggered on the Swift alert for GRB 161217A (D'Elia et al., GCN 20276) as part of the 4pisky program, and follow up observations were obtained up to 10 days post-burst. Our observations at 15 GHz on 2016 Dec 23.16, Dec 24.15 and Dec 27.17 (UT) do not reveal any radio source at the XRT location (Osborne et al., GCN 20278), with 3sigma upper limits of 84 uJy, 66 uJy and 77 uJy respectively. We thank the AMI staff for scheduling these observations. The AMI-GRB database is a log of all GRB follow up observations with the AMI, and is available at http://4pisky.org/ami-grb/.