GCN Circular 23602

A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), M. J. Moss (George Washington University),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC) and A. Tohuvavohu (PSU) report on behalf of
the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team:

At 21:03:51 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 190103B (trigger=881709).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 212.574, +35.261, which is 
   RA(J2000)  =  14h 10m 18s
   Dec(J2000) = +35d 15' 40"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve shows several overlapping peaks
with a duration of about 40 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~5800 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 21:05:24.5 UT, 93.3 seconds after
the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located
at RA, Dec 212.5695, 35.2617 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 14h 10m 16.68s
   Dec(J2000) = +35d 15' 42.1"
with an uncertainty of 4.8 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 13 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 7.42e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 102 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 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: http://www.swift.psu.edu/too.html.)