//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23845 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Swift detection of a burst with an optical counterpart DATE: 19/02/03 15:57:07 GMT FROM: Aaron Tohuvavohu at PSU/Swift A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), J. A. Kennea (PSU), N. J. Klingler (PSU), M. H. Siegel (PSU) and A. Tohuvavohu (PSU) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team: At 15:44:08 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 190203A (trigger=887512). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 22.577, +55.738 which is RA(J2000) = 01h 30m 18s Dec(J2000) = +55d 44' 18" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a multi-peaked structure with a duration of about 55 sec. The peak count rate was ~2000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~2 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 15:46:04.0 UT, 115.7 seconds after the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 22.5984, 55.7211 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 01h 30m 23.62s Dec(J2000) = +55d 43' 16.0" with an uncertainty of 4.8 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 74 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT error circle. No event data are yet available to determine the column density using X-ray spectroscopy. The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 4.46e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 120 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in the rapidly available 2.7'x2.7' sub-image at RA(J2000) = 01:30:23.19 = 22.59662 DEC(J2000) = +55:43:20.7 = 55.72241 with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 0.63 arc sec. This position is 5.9 arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is 18.58 with a 1-sigma error of about 0.15. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.64. Burst Advocate for this burst is A. Y. Lien (amy.y.lien AT 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: /too.html.) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23846 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Koshka Zeiss-1000 optical upper limit DATE: 19/02/03 16:51:04 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow A. Novichonok (KIAM), A. Pozanenko (IKI), E. Mazaeva (IKI), S. Belkin (IKI), A. Volnova (IKI), I. Molotov (KIAM) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 190203A (Lien , et al., GCN 23845) with Zeiss-1000 1-m telescope of Koshka Observatory starting on Feb. 03 (UT) 16:01:10 in R-filter under not optimal weather conditions. We do not detect the optical afterglow candidate (Lien , et al., GCN 23830). Preliminary photometry of the combined of first 4 images of 4*180 seconds started on 2019-02-03 16:01:10 is R=19.5. Observation is continuing. The photometry is based on several nearby USNO-B1.0 stars. [GCN OPS NOTE(03feb19): Per author's request, a typo in the first time specification has been changed from "02:40:34" to "16:01:10".] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23847 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: SAO RAS optical observations, afterglow fading DATE: 19/02/03 18:43:44 GMT FROM: Moskvitin Alexander at SAO RAS A. S. Moskvitin and O. I. Spiridonova (SAO RAS), A. A. Volnova (IKI RAS), report on behalf of larger collaboration. We observed the field of the GRB 190203A (Lien et al. GCNC #23845) with the Zeiss-1000 telescope of SAO RAS (+ CCD photometer), started on February, 3, 15:54:38 UT (10.5 min after the trigger). We clearly detected the OT in the first few 300 sec. Rc band frames (coordinates are consistent with the reported UVOT position). Preliminary measurements of the OT brightness are as following: T_start, UT T_end T_mid-T0, h exp., s R +/- R_err 15:54:38 16:11:51 0.318 3 x 300 19.34 +/- 0.08 16:12:54 16:30:11 0.624 3 x 300 20.46 +/- 0.12 16:30:54 17:19:23 1.183 8 x 300 21.23 +/- 0.14 OT is fading quickly with the slope about -1.3. The photometry is based on the nearby USNO-B1 stars. No correction has been made for the Galactic extinction. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23848 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 19/02/03 19:51:46 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester M.R. Goad, J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 77 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 1 UVOT images for GRB 190203A, 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 = 22.59659, +55.72219 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 01h 30m 23.18s Dec (J2000): +55d 43' 19.9" with an uncertainty of 2.7 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: 23850 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: MASTER OT detection DATE: 19/02/03 23:55:04 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, N.Tyurina, V.Kornilov, D.Vlasenko, V.Vladimirov, D.Zimnukhov, A.Kuznetsov, P.Balanutsa, A. Chasovnikov, D.Kuvshinov (Lomonosov Moscow State University, SAI, Physics Department), R. Rebolo, M. Serra, N. Lodieu, G. Israelian, L. Suarez-Andres (The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias), D. Buckley (South African Astronomical Observatory), V. Yurkov, A. Gabovich, Yu. Sergienko, D. Kobcev (Blagoveschensk Educational State University), A. Tlatov, V.Senik, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov (Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory), O. Gress, N.M. Budnev, O.Ershova, Yu.Ishmuhametova (Applied Physics Institute, Irkutsk State University), R. Podesta, C. Lopez, C.Francile, F. Podesta (Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar OAFA), H.Levato (Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio ICATE) MASTER-Amur robotic telescope (Global MASTER-Net http://observ.pereplet.ru, Lipunov et al., 2010, Advances in Astronomy, v.2010, 30L) was pointed to Swift GRB190203B (Lien et al. GCN23845, Ttrig=2019-02-03 15:44:08 UT) 19 sec after notice time (63 sec after trigger time) at 2019-02-03 15:45:11 UT. On our first (10s exposure) set we found 1 optical transient within SWIFT error-box: T-Tmid Date Time Exp,s Ra Dec Mag ---------|---------------------|-------|-----------------|-----------------|------- 68 2019-02-03 15:45:11 10 (01h 30m 23.25s , +55d 43m 20.59s) 15.28 There is fast decay on the light curve. The 5-sigma upper limit on the first 10s exposition was 16.3mag The galactic latitude b = -6 deg., longitude l = 129 deg. The observations started on zenit distance = 61 deg. The sun altitude was -56.2 deg The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23858 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 19/02/04 12:09:15 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU) and A.Y. Lien report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 6.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 190203A (Lien et al. GCN Circ. 23845), from 103 s to 50.0 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 669 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 8 s were taken while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Goad et al. (GCN Circ. 23848). The late-time light curve (from T0+4.1 ks) can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.73 (+/-0.08). A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.69 (+/-0.04). The best-fitting absorption column is 7.2 (+/-0.5) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 4.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.63 (+0.21, -0.20) and a best-fitting absorption column of 6.9 (+2.0, -1.7) x 10^21 cm^-2. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 5.4 x 10^-11 (7.6 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 6.9 (+2.0, -1.7) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 4.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 Excess significance: 2.8 sigma Photon index: 1.63 (+0.21, -0.20) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 1.73, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.012 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 6.4 x 10^-13 (8.9 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/00887512. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23859 SUBJECT: Konus-Wind observation of GRB 190203A DATE: 19/02/04 12:23:45 GMT FROM: Dmitry Frederiks at Ioffe Institute D. Frederiks, S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, A. Kozlova, A.Lysenko, D. Svinkin, A. Tsvetkova, M. Ulanov, and T. Cline, on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report: The long GRB 190203A (Swift/BAT detection: Lien et al., GCN 23845) triggered Konus-Wind at T0=56630.443 s UT (15:43:50.443). The KW light curve shows a multi-peaked structure in the interval from T0-39 s to T0-58 s. The emission is seen up to ~4 MeV. As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst had a fluence of (4.9 ± 0.5)x10^-5 erg/cm2 and a 64-ms peak energy flux, measured from T0+20.352, of (3.5 ± 0.4)x10^-6 erg/cm2 (both in the 20 keV - 10 MeV energy range). The time-integrated spectrum (measured from T0 to T0+57.344 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 15 MeV range by a cutoff power-law (CPL) function with the following model parameters: the photon index alpha = -0.45(-0.11,+0.12), and the peak energy Ep = 314(-22,+25) keV, chi2 = 98/98 dof. Fitting this spectrum with the GRB (Band) function yields the same alpha and Ep, and only an upper limit on beta (<-2.7). The spectrum near the peak count rate (measured from T0+16.640 to T0+24.574 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 15 MeV range by the CPL function with the following model parameters: the photon index alpha = -0.17(-0.16,+0.18), and the peak energy Ep = 348(-29,+34) keV, chi2 = 90/98 dof. Fitting this spectrum with the GRB (Band) function yields the same alpha and Ep, and only an upper limit on beta (<-2.5). The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB190203_T56630/ All the quoted errors are estimated at the 90% confidence level. All the presented results are preliminary. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23860 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Liverpool Telescope near-IR observations DATE: 19/02/04 12:30:13 GMT FROM: Luca Izzo at IAA-CSIC L. Izzo, M. Blazek (HETH-IAA/CSIC), A. de Ugarte Postigo (DARK/NBI & HETH-IAA/CSIC), D. A. Kann, C. C. Thoene (HETH-IAA/CSIC) report: We observed the field of GRB 190203A (Lien et al. GCN 23845) with the IO:I camera mounted on the 2-m Liverpool Telescope located in La Palma, Spain. Observations started on February 3rd at 20:31:17 UT (4.72 hours after the GRB trigger) and we obtained a series of 10x60s images in the H filter. In our stacked image, we find no source at the position of the observed counterpart (Moskvitin et al. GCN 23847, Lipunov et al. GCN 23850) down to a 3-sigma limit of H(AB) > 20.1 mag. The calibration was performed using four nearby 2MASS stars. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23864 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: COATLI Optical Observations DATE: 19/02/04 14:21:01 GMT FROM: Alan M. Watson at Instituto de Astronomia UNAM Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Nat Butler (ASU), Rosa L. Becerra (UNAM), Diego González (UNAM), William H. Lee (UNAM), Margarita Pereyra (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), and Eleonora Troja (GSFC) report: We observed the field of GRB 190203A (Lien et al., GCN Circ. 23845) with the COATLI 50-cm telescope and interim imager at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (http://coatli.astroscu.unam.mx) from 2019-02-04 02:39 to 2019-02-04 09:19 (from 10.9 to 17.6 hours after the trigger), obtaining a total of 3.2 hours of exposure in the w filter. At the position of the UVOT afterglow candidate (Lien et al., GCN Circ. 23852), we do not detect anything to a 5-sigma limit of w = 22.4. Our non-detection is consistent with the rapid fading seen by Lien et al. (GCN Circ. 23845), Novichonok et al. (GCN Circ. 23846), Moskvitin et al. (GCN Circ. 23847), and Lipunov (GCN Circ. 23850). Our w magnitudes are calibrated against the USNO-B1 catalog (adjusted to an approximate AB system) and are not corrected for Galactic extinction in the direction of the GRB. We thank the COATLI technical team and the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23865 SUBJECT: GRB190203A: UVOT analysis DATE: 19/02/04 17:01:34 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL Paul Kuin (UCL/MSSL) and A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 190203A 121 s after the BAT trigger (Lien et al., GCN Circ. 23845). A source consistent with the XRT position (Goad et al. GCN Circ. 23848) is detected in the initial UVOT exposures. The preliminary UVOT position is: RA (J2000) = 01:30:23.21 = 22.59672 (deg.) Dec (J2000) = +55:43:20.6 = 55.72240 (deg.) with an estimated uncertainty of 0.46 arc sec. (radius, 90% confidence). Preliminary detections and 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system (Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the early exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white 121 271 147 18.66 +/- 0.06 v 609 5462 225 >19.2 b 535 4846 236 >20.5 u 279 5967 551 >21.0 w1 658 5872 413 >20.2 m2 634 5666 413 >21.0 w2 585 5257 236 >20.2 The short v image during settling, i.e., prior to the settled images reported here, shows a 16.3 +/- 0.3 mag source as well. Usually we have a detection in the other bands besides in the early white filter. Either the GRB decayed so fast as to be below u > 19.8 mag between To+278 and 529s or this burst is of a high redshift. A rapid decay is consistent with Watson et al. (GCN Circ. 23864). The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.64 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23866 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: AstroSat CZTI detection DATE: 19/02/04 18:38:24 GMT FROM: Vidushi Sharma at IUCAA T. Khanam, V. Sharma and D. Bhattacharya (IUCAA), V. Bhalerao (IIT-B), A. R. Rao (TIFR) and S. Vadawale (PRL) report on behalf of the AstroSat CZTI collaboration: Analysis of AstroSat CZTI data showed the detection of a long GRB 190203A, which was also detected by Swift (Lien A. Y. et al., GCN Circ 23845) and Konus-Wind (Frederiks D. et al., GCN Circ 23859). The source was clearly detected in the 20-200 keV energy range. The light curve shows multiple peaks of emission with the strongest peak at 15:44:14.0 UT. The measured peak count rate is 314 cts/s above the background in the combined data of four quadrants, with a total of 387 cts. The local mean background count rate was 340 cts/s. Using cumulative rates, we measure a T90 of 46.45 s. It was also clearly detected in the CsI anticoincidence (Veto) detector in the 100-500 keV energy range. CZTI GRB detections are reported regularly on the payload site at http://astrosat.iucaa.in/czti/?q=grb. CZTI is built by a TIFR-led consortium of institutes across India, including VSSC, ISAC, IUCAA, SAC and PRL. The Indian Space Research Organisation funded, managed and facilitated the project. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23873 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 19/02/05 03:40:35 GMT FROM: Amy Lien at GSFC D. M. Palmer (LANL), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. R. Cummings (CPI), H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU), T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-213 to T+456 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 190203A (trigger #887512) (Lien et al., GCN Circ. 23845). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 22.603, 55.736 deg which is RA(J2000) = 01h 30m 24.7s Dec(J2000) = +55d 44' 10.5" with an uncertainty of 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 21%. The mask-weighted light curve shows several overlapping pulses that starts ~ T-60 s and ends at T+40 s. Note that there is a large data gap from T-117.652 s to T-60.784 s, so it is possible that there is additional burst emission during this interval. T90 (15-350 keV) is 96 +- 16 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-60.784 to T+ 43.216 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.06 +- 0.06. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.5 +- 0.05 x 10^-5 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+2.72 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 3.1 +- 0.6 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/887512/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23878 SUBJECT: GRB 190203A: Mondy optical observations DATE: 19/02/06 18:09:10 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow A. Volnova (IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP), A. Pozanenko (IKI), E. Mazaeva (IKI), S. Belkin (IKI) report on behalf of IKI-GRB-FuN: We observed the field of GRB 190203A (Lien et al. GCN 23845) with AZT-33IK telescope of Sayan observatory (Mondy) starting on Feb. 03 (UT) 16:23:21. We detected the optical afterglow (Lien et al. GCN 23845; Moskvitin et al., GCN 23847; Lipunov et al. GCN 23850). Preliminary photometry of the afterglow is following. Date UT start t-T0 Filter Exp. OT Err. UL(3sigma) (mid, days) (s) 2019-02-03 16:23:21 0.04807 R 30*120 21.14 0.27 21.3 The photometry is based on the nearby USNO-B1 stars used in GCN 23847.