TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 6086 SUBJECT: GRB 070209: Swift detection of a short hard burst DATE: 07/02/09 03:53:23 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC G. Sato (GSFC/ISAS), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), D. N. Burrows (PSU), M. M. Chester (PSU), C. Gronwall (PSU), S. T. Holland (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), S. Immler (GSFC/USRA), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. Perri (ASDC), M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU), G. Stratta (ASDC) and D. E. Vanden Berk (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 03:33:41 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 070209 (trigger=259803). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 46.237, -47.370 which is RA(J2000) = 03h 04m 57s Dec(J2000) = -47d 22' 11" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a single spike with a duration of about 0.2 sec. The peak count rate was ~2500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began taking data at 03:34:59 UT, 78 seconds after the BAT trigger. The XRT on-board centroid algorithm did not find a source in the image and no prompt position is available. We are waiting for down-linked data to detect and determine a position for the source. UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 100 seconds with the White (160-650 nm) filter starting 83 seconds after the BAT trigger. No afterglow candidate has been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 25% of the BAT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 18.5 mag. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the BAT 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.