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GCN Circular 32405

Subject
GRB 220715B: Swift detection of a burst
Date
2022-07-15T22:39:06Z (2 years ago)
From
David Palmer at LANL <palmer@lanl.gov>
E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/UMCP), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), S. Dichiara (PSU),
M. Ferro (INAF-OAB), J.D. Gropp (PSU),
N. J. Klingler (GSFC/UMBC/CRESSTII), S. Laha (GSFC/UMBC),
A. Y. Lien (U Tampa), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC),
A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
T. M. Parsotan (GSFC/UMBC/CRESSTII), T. Sbarrato (INAF-OAB) and
M. A. Williams (PSU) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory Team:

At 22:24:42 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 220715B (trigger=1116441).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 254.889, -33.597 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 16h 59m 33s
   Dec(J2000) = -33d 35' 48"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a multi-peaked
structure with a duration of about 50 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~2400 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 22:26:20.9 UT, 98.8 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued
X-ray source located at RA, Dec 254.87520, -33.59766 which is
equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 16h 59m 30.05s
   Dec(J2000) = -33d 35' 51.6"
with an uncertainty of 5.7 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 41 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 https://www.swift.ac.uk/sper.  We
cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time. 

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density consistent with the Galactic value of 3.58
x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). 

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 none of
the XRT error circle. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated
on-board covers 100% of the XRT error circle. Because of the density of
catalogued stars, further analysis is required to report an upper limit for any
afterglow in the region. No correction has been made for the expected
extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.525. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is E. Troja (nora.gsfc AT gmail.com). 
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/)
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