TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  143
SUBJECT: GRB 980703: BATSE Observations
DATE:    98/07/09 15:45:26 GMT
FROM:    R. Marc Kippen at BATSE/UAH/MSFC  <marc.kippen@msfc.nasa.gov>

GRB 980703: BATSE Observations

R. M. Kippen (University of Alabama in Huntsville) reports on behalf
of the BATSE GRB team:

GRB 980703 was detected by BATSE on July 3.182468 UT as trigger number
6891.  The event consisted of two pulses, each lasting approximately
100 s, with a total duration of about 400 s.  The first pulse had
significant sub-structure, whereas the second, weaker, episode was
relatively smooth.  The burst's peak flux (50-300 keV; integrated over
1 s) and fluence (>20 keV) are 2.42 (-/+ 0.06) photons cmE-2 sE-1 and
4.59 (-/+ 0.42) x 10E-5 erg cmE-2, respectively---ranking it in the
top 20% (5%) of the BATSE burst flux (fluence) distribution.  The
average spectral hardness of the burst, as estimated by the ratio of
100-300 keV counts to those in the 50-100 keV range, is H32 = 1.05
(-/+ 0.02), which is average for events of this long duration.  The
BATSE burst location is consistent with those measured by RXTE-ASM
(GCN/XTE Notices) and BeppoSAX (GCN 127).  A location sky-map and
lightcurve for this event (and other notable bursts) are available at
the BATSE Rapid Burst Response world-wide-web site:

          http://www.batse.msfc.nasa.gov/~kippen/batserbr/

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