GCN Circular 20500

H.L. Xiao (PSI) , W. Hajdas (PSI) and R. Marcinkowski (PSI) report on behalf of the POLAR collaboration:

At 2017-01-20 11:18:30.0 UT(T0), during a routine on-ground search of data, POLAR detected the GRB 170120A,
which was also observed by Fermi GBM (trigger # 506603916).

The POLAR light curve consists of multiple peaks with duration (T90) of 16.0 +/- 1.0 s measured from T0.
The 1.0 s peak flux at T0 + 7.5 s  is equal to 600 +/- 70 counts/sec.
POLAR recorded 4970 events from the burst.
Above measurements are in the energy range of about 80 - 500 keV.

LC_URL: http://polar.psi.ch/triggers/GRB_170120A_raw.png
     or http://polar.psi.ch/pub/lc.php?event=GRB+170120A

Using the best location from Fermi GBM, which is (J2000):
RA : 262.83 [deg]
Dec: 12.57 [deg]
the incident angle in the POLAR coordinate at T0 is:
Theta: 60.7 [deg]
Phi: 201.9 [deg]

The analysis results presented above are preliminary. Calibration of the instrument is ongoing.
POLAR is a dedicated Gamma-Ray Burst polarimeter which was launched on-board the Chinese space
laboratory Tiangong-2 (TG-2) on Sep 15, 2016. The energy detection range of POLAR is ~ 50-500 keV.
More information about POLAR can be found at http://polar.psi.ch/pub ,
 http://polar.ihep.ac.cn/en/ and http://isdc.unige.ch/polar/ .

This message is quotable in publications.