GCN Circular 32655

Wael Farah (SETI Institute), Joe Bright (University of Oxford), Alex Pollak, Andrew Siemion (SETI Institute), David DeBoer (UC Berkeley), Rob Fender, Lauren Rhodes, Ian Heywood (University of Oxford) report:

After the detection of a bright radio counterpart to GRB221009A at 15.5 GHz was reported in ATel #15653 /GCN #32653, we conducted follow-up observations with the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) at 1.5, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 GHz. Observations were carried out simultaneously at 1.5 + 3, 4 + 6 and 8 + 10 GHz, with a 672 MHz bandwidth centered on each frequency, using a newly deployed wideband correlator (Farah et al., in prep.), at spectral and temporal resolution of 0.5MHz and 10s, respectively. The target field was observed for 1 hour per pair of frequencies. The primary flux standard 3c286 was used to calibrate the absolute flux scale and bandpass response of the array, and J1925+2106 was used to calibrate the time dependent complex gains. Data flagging was performed with AOFlagger (Offringa+2012) while calibration and imaging were performed using standard techniques in CASA (McMullin+2007).

We clearly detect an unresolved radio source at a position consistent with the one reported in ATel #15650 at 1.5, 3, 6, 8, and 10 GHz. Preliminary flux densities at 3, 6, 8, and 10 GHz are reported below, and include a 10% absolute flux scale uncertainty in addition to the statistical error from the fit. Observations conducted at 4 GHz were severely corrupted by radio frequency interference and were not processed. Our observations indicate that the radio counterpart to GRB221009A/Swift J1913.1+1946 is self-absorbed below around 10 GHz, although there is apparently significant flux density evolution between observing epochs.


MJD                     Frequency (GHz)     Flux density (mJy)
59862.0492         3.0                           3.6 +/- 0.7
59861.9414         6.0                           9.0 +/- 1
59862.1242         8.0                           28  +/- 3
59862.1242         10.0                         38  +/- 4


The Allen Telescope Array is a 42-element radio interferometer located at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California. The facility is fully operated by the SETI Institute.