TO: GCN Customers DT: 21 Jul 07 RE: Outage of Swift-to-GCN Operations This morning (10:01:08 and 10:33:48 UT) there were two Swift-BAT triggers (285653 and 285654) which at first glance appear to be real GRBs. However, there was a problem in the connection between the front-end part of GCN (swift_tdrss_receiver) and the main GCN program (gcn_main) which prevented the Swift GCN Notices from being distributed to the regular customer list. This problem has been elimited. Normally, the parts of the GCN system that monitor this (and other) connections was not able to clear the problem and re-establish the connection. This loss of connection occurs at the 2 or 3 times a year level, and the automated reconnection monitor works within 4 minutes after the start of the loss of connection. However, this time it did not succeed. And to further compound the problem, the automated notification (to me) of this connection problem did not work. Hense the outage was allowed to continue without human intervention. Peliminary investegations show that the connection was in a partial state. The connection state was sufficient so as to not trip the connection monitor, but was not fully connected to allow the passage of data from the front-end program to the main program. This new scenario will be futher investigated and a solution will be found to prevent this new type of loss-of-service problem. This problem affected only the Swift-related Notices. All the other GCN Notice types were and continue to function normally. Nor did it affect the Circulars. I apologize for the loss of these two bursts. The Swift team is waiting for the downlink of the full data sets and will have the usual "refined analysis" circulars on these two triggers. Again, I apologize. GRBs are a rare commodity, and to loose two of them is serious and intolerable loss to the scientific community. Sincerely, Scott Barthelmy ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN/SWIFT NOTICE NOTICE_DATE: Sun 22 Jul 07 00:53:19 UT NOTICE_TYPE: Swift-FOM Will_Observe TRIGGER_NUM: 285654, Seg_Num: 1 GRB_RA: 33.135d {+02h 12m 32s} (J2000), 33.231d {+02h 12m 55s} (current), 32.501d {+02h 10m 00s} (1950) GRB_DEC: -2.196d {-02d 11' 45"} (J2000), -2.161d {-02d 09' 38"} (current), -2.430d {-02d 25' 47"} (1950) GRB_DATE: 14302 TJD; 202 DOY; 07/07/21 GRB_TIME: 38028.00 SOD {10:33:48.00} UT TRIGGER_INDEX: 0 RATE_SIGNIF: 0.00 [sigma] IMAGE_SIGNIF: 0.00 [sigma] FLAGS: 0x3 MERIT: 99.00 SUN_POSTN: 121.01d {+08h 04m 02s} +20.38d {+20d 22' 60"} SUN_DIST: 88.67 [deg] Sun_angle= 5.9 [hr] (West of Sun) MOON_POSTN: 203.00d {+13h 31m 59s} -13.83d {-13d 49' 31"} MOON_DIST: 161.07 [deg] MOON_ILLUM: 48 [%] GAL_COORDS: 164.29,-58.40 [deg] galactic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) ECL_COORDS: 30.14,-14.62 [deg] ecliptic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) COMMENTS: SWIFT Figure-of-Merit decision. COMMENTS: This Notice is generated as a result of an uploaded TOO on an old GRB -- this is not a newly detected burst. COMMENTS: As a result of this TOO, the TRIG_INDEX, and RATE/IMAGE_SIGNIF fields are not valid! COMMENTS: And sometimes the GRB_DATE/TIME fields are not valid! COMMENTS: This was of sufficient merit to become the new Automated Target; COMMENTS: but if the Current PPT has a greater merit, then we will not request a slew. COMMENTS: FOM will request the s/c to slew. COMMENTS: The S/C has yet to make its decision about safe to slew or not. COMMENTS: This does not match any source in the ground catalog. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN/SWIFT NOTICE NOTICE_DATE: Sun 22 Jul 07 00:53:35 UT NOTICE_TYPE: Swift-S/C Will_Slew TRIGGER_NUM: 285654, Seg_Num: 1 GRB_RA: 33.135d {+02h 12m 32s} (J2000), 33.231d {+02h 12m 55s} (current), 32.501d {+02h 10m 00s} (1950) GRB_DEC: -2.196d {-02d 11' 45"} (J2000), -2.161d {-02d 09' 38"} (current), -2.430d {-02d 25' 47"} (1950) GRB_DATE: 14302 TJD; 202 DOY; 07/07/21 GRB_TIME: 38028.00 SOD {10:33:48.00} UT TRIGGER_INDEX: 0 RATE_SIGNIF: 0.00 [sigma] IMAGE_SIGNIF: 0.00 [sigma] SLEW_QUERY: 0x0 WAIT_TIME: 0.00 [sec] (=0.0 [min]) OBS_TIME: 1547.00 [sec] (=25.8 [min]) INST_MODES: BAT: 0=0x0 XRT: 0=0x0 UVOT: 8743=0x2227 MERIT: 99.00 SUN_POSTN: 121.01d {+08h 04m 02s} +20.38d {+20d 22' 60"} SUN_DIST: 88.67 [deg] Sun_angle= 5.9 [hr] (West of Sun) MOON_POSTN: 203.00d {+13h 31m 60s} -13.83d {-13d 49' 34"} MOON_DIST: 161.07 [deg] MOON_ILLUM: 48 [%] GAL_COORDS: 164.29,-58.40 [deg] galactic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) ECL_COORDS: 30.14,-14.62 [deg] ecliptic lon,lat of the burst (or transient) COMMENTS: SWIFT SC Slew decision. COMMENTS: This Notice is generated as a result of an uploaded TOO on an old GRB -- this is not a newly detected burst. COMMENTS: As a result of this TOO, the TRIG_INDEX, and RATE_SIGNIF fields are not valid! COMMENTS: And sometimes the GRB_DATE/TIME fields are not valid! COMMENTS: SC will immediately slew to this target. COMMENTS: This does not match any source in the ground catalog.