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GCN Circular 19967

Subject
GRB 161001A: Swift detection of a burst
Date
2016-10-01T01:15:39Z (8 years ago)
From
David Palmer at LANL <palmer@lanl.gov>
K. L. Page (U Leicester), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC),
F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL) and M. H. Siegel (PSU)
report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 01:05:16 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 161001A (trigger=714404).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 71.913, -57.283 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 04h 47m 39s
   Dec(J2000) = -57d 16' 57"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a complex
structure with a duration of about 3 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~11000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 01:06:21.5 UT, 65.0 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued
X-ray source located at RA, Dec 71.91848, -57.26127 which is equivalent
to:
   RA(J2000)  = 04h 47m 40.44s
   Dec(J2000) = -57d 15' 40.6"
with an uncertainty of 3.9 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 78 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;
the latest position is available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper.  We
cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time. No
spectrum from the promptly downlinked event data is yet available to
determine the column density. 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 68 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has
been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of
the XRT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. 
The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the
XRT 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. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is K. L. Page (klp5 AT leicester.ac.uk). 
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/too.html.)
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