GCN Circular 15279

J. A. Kennea (PSU) on behalf of the Swift Science Operations Team

As Swift's Mission Operations Center (MOC) is located at Penn State, 
rather than a NASA facility, it will remain fully staffed and operational 
in the event of a US Government shutdown. However, a shutdown may affect 
the visibility of NASA-based websites, such as the Swift Science Data 
Center  (SDC) and the GCN, to the outside world (including the Swift MOC). 
If the SDC and GCN are down, our ability to report on accurate 
localization of burst afterglows and evolution of burst light-curves will 
likely be compromised. Also our partner SDC sites in the UK and Italy will 
likely not receive new Swift data if the NASA SDC is not available.

If GCN becomes unavailable, we have put in place a backup webpage that 
hosts the first response GCN Circulars for new Swift bursts (i.e. those 
reporting the initial detection). It can be found at this URL:

http://www.swift.psu.edu/gcn

Since we cannot disseminate GCN Notices or Circulars if the GCN site goes 
off-line, interested parties are urged to check this site periodically 
during any US Government shutdown. Also, the Swift iPhone/iPad app, found 
here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swift-explorer/id465669299?mt=8

can be used to be alerted when a new GRB is detected through push 
notifications.

Swift's TOO website will remain online during any shutdown and our 
capability to perform TOO uploads is not expected to be affected during 
any shutdown.