TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  31608
SUBJECT: GRB 220218A: Swift detection of a burst
DATE:    22/02/18 22:49:12 GMT
FROM:    David Palmer at LANL  <palmer@lanl.gov>

V. D'Elia (SSDC & INAF-OAR), S. Dichiara (PSU), J.D. Gropp (PSU),
N. J. Klingler (GSFC/UMBC/CRESSTII), A. Y. Lien (U Tampa),
F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
T. M. Parsotan (GSFC/UMBC/CRESSTII), M. H. Siegel (PSU) and
A. Tohuvavohu (U Toronto) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory Team:

At 22:28:59 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 220218A (trigger=1093860).  Swift did not slew to the
burst location. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 133.830, +31.984 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 08h 55m 19s
   Dec(J2000) = +31d 59' 02"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve for this image trigger
shows some variation on a multi-minute timescale following the
trigger, but further analysis with the downlinked data is required
to determine whether it is due to the GRB source. 

Swift is currently restarting after a reaction wheel failure, so
automatic slews to GRBs are turned off.  Therefore there will be
no XRT or UVOT observations at this time. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is V. D'Elia (valerio.delia AT ssdc.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/)