TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13017 SUBJECT: GRB 120308A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/03/08 06:29:58 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), D. N. Burrows (PSU), M. M. Chester (PSU), V. D'Elia (ASDC), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL) and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 06:13:38 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120308A (trigger=517234). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 219.078, +79.703 which is RA(J2000) = 14h 36m 19s Dec(J2000) = +79d 42' 12" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a broad peak structure with a duration of about ~30 sec. The peak count rate was ~500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 06:15:11.3 UT, 92.6 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 219.08492, 79.68629 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 14h 36m 20.38s Dec(J2000) = +79d 41' 10.6" with an uncertainty of 4.1 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 60 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 2.89 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 1.17e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 250 seconds with the U filter starting 157 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 19.2 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 18.0 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.03. Burst Advocate for this burst is W. H. Baumgartner (wayne AT milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov). 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.)